How entitled and arrogant some Christians are. They will have their religion be the only religion in the US, the first amendment be damned. It is hard to tell if she stepped on the student’s hand or kicked it out of the way from the video, but she clearly was trying to interrupt the prayers by walking in, around, and over them. I love that she called their prayers magic I wonder what she calls Christian prayers? Hugs
“I believe in Jesus, so I’m interrupting the floor,” the teacher said in an incident caught on video
A teacher at Franklin Academy in Florida was fired after a video showed her stepping on a Muslim student’s hand during prayer and referring to his beliefs as ‘magic’ (screenshot via NBC News)
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Ateacher at Franklin Academy, a public charter school in Florida, has been fired after she interrupted three Muslim students in the middle of a prayer. She stepped on their hands during the sacred ritual and dismissively calling their worship “magic.” That’s especially ironic coming from a Christian, since the same faculty member said, “I believe in Jesus, so I’m interrupting the floor.”
Video of the incident was shared Thursday on TikTok, where it has over 1.3 million views so far:
Earlier today, a very troubling TikTok video was shared with our leadership team. At Franklin, we do not tolerate discriminatory behavior in any form.
While we do not discuss personnel matters, we can share that the teacher in question is no longer a member of the Franklin Academy staff.
We look forward to continuing our IB initiatives of creating a better and more peaceful world through intercultural & racial understanding and mutual respect.
That’s the right course of action since religious bigotry has no place in a public school. But many other questions have been ignored.
What would have happened if the incident wasn’t caught on film?
What is the school going to do to prevent incidents like this in the future?
Why don’t those students have a safe place where they can worship without interrupting anyone else?
Were the Muslim students in that office without asking or were they granted permission earlier? (According to a TikTok comment left by the student who posted the video, two teachers “allowed us into the room that we were in.” He added that everything was fine for the Muslim students until the teacher in question walked into the room.)
Why were the students filming this? (Is it because this has happened before?)
And the most important question of all: What would conservatives be saying if a Muslim was caught on camera interrupting a Christian student who was privately praying during the school day?
It’s irrelevant what you think of Islam. Muslim students have every right to worship as they wish and most administrators have no problem finding space for students to pray peacefully during school hours. It shouldn’t be that complicated. That’s not always the case, though:
Incidents like this are why it’s important for school staff to have religious awareness, according to Abdullah Jaber, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Florida chapter (CAIR-Florida).
“It is of utmost importance that school administrators and staff know basic faith practices to serve students practicing their faith, in this case, Muslims,” said Jaber.
Even now, days later, the school has not publicly said how it plans to address this matter. For an issue as simple as basic religious tolerance, this shouldn’t be complicated.
The world it is a’ changing. This is what programs of acceptance and tolerance produce, a better world for everyone. This is what positive representation does, it shows the LGBTQI+ are not monsters and helps people understand that they know people who are LGBTQI+, maybe even a family member. This is why the haters want to take LGBTQI+ books out of schools and libraries, why these haters want the don’t say gay laws. They want to stop the spread of acceptance that comes with people knowing, seeing, and understanding gay, lesbian, trans and the rest of the LGBTQI+ community. Hugs
Bill and Jill, Simon’s grandparents (Photo: Simon Crowther)
A man has shared the message he received from his grandparents after they found out, via a newspaper story, that he’s gay.
Simon Crowther, 28, is a British civil engineer who specializes in water and flooding. The Nottingham-based entrepreneur founded his own company, Flood Protection Solutions, while still at university in 2012. In 2018 he was featured in a ‘Forbes Under 30’ feature of entrepreneurs to watch. The latest issue of gay magazine Attitude highlighted Crowther as a rising name in the LGBTQ engineering and tech world.
Simon Crowther (Photo: Avit Media)
Crowther was out to most people in his life, including immediate family, but not his grandparents. However, his inclusion in Attitude list of 101 trailblazers was picked up by a local newspaper in his hometown of Nottingham, which ran a story about Crowther’s achievements.
Crowther’s uncle commented about the article to his grandparents, Jill and Bill, prompting this adorable message from them.
“Hello Simon, We learned from John R when he came round with Grandpa’s birthday present, that there was an excellent article recently, about you and how you built your business, in a Nottingham Evening Post Magazine.
“Apparently, you reported that you had ‘Come Out’ as being gay to your family when you were 21. Obviously, it was decided to keep it from us for if it upset us. Don’t worry, we are not upset.
“In fact, I had already worked it out for myself (Gran), but Grandpa didn’t know. Don’t worry. You are still the same Simon to us this news alters nothing. We want you to know that you are still our grandson and we love you just the same.
“We have not mentioned this to Mum or Jenny, so this message will be as big a surprise to them when you tell them, as it will be to you. I am so glad we now know. Enjoy your life.
“You are making a pretty good job of it up to now. And…..we would still love to see the article mentioned above. Can you e-mail it to us? With all our love and support,
Crowther shared the message to Twitter, adding the caption, “My 89 year old grandparents win the award for most adorable email ever 🥰🥰🥰 Feeling blessed”
My 89 year old grandparents win the award for most adorable email ever 🥰🥰🥰 Feeling blessed pic.twitter.com/aM6yNPIuTk
— Simon Crowther – The Flood Guy ® (@SCcrowther) January 12, 2022
At the time of writing, the tweet has had over 44k likes and hundreds of comments. Here are just a few of the replies.
I've not come out to my grandparents. I was too scared that it would ruin our relationship because I can't tell where they stand on those topics.
I missed my chance to tell both my grandads, but I'm still too nervous to tell my Nan 😔
2/2 to knoabout gay people in 1940s onwards etc. he just shrugged and said “he was a nice man” no judgment, no assumptions,” my dad was amazing and the kindest non judgemental man I ever met. This story is about you but I wanted to share a little of my dad x hope you don’t mind.
And this is why we need to push back on the “excuse old people for bigotry” line. They don’t need to be. The world is better when they’re actually good people, no matter how old.
That’s just wonderful! People misjudge how older people will react to things. My Mum spent her last 2 years in a care home. One of her favourite carers was a gay man. He once showed Mum a pic of new partner. Mum’s reaction? “He’s far too old for you, you need a younger man” 🤷♀️
I remember my Irish gran calling me when the vote for same sex marriage was taken in Ireland. "Ye have won the vote" she said. I asked if she had voted, and got "of course I fekkin voted for it, why wouldn't I". She is now 90 years old and going strong.
I am so sick of the cries of fear and doom, of how their rights to discriminate against us gays are the only thing these Christians can see when it comes to same sex marriage. It has been the law of the land for over 7 years and no church has been forced to do a same sex marriage, no one has been jailed for refusing to enter into a same sex marriage, the sky has not fallen nor has their god rained fire and brimstone on the US. All that has happened is the same thing that happens when a marginalized minority gets their equality / civil rights entered into law in the US, more people are able to enjoy the rights the white Christians have always had. I am so tired of this shit. What this woman and those like her are demanding is follow my religion or Everything we love will be destroyed which is our right to deny you the same rights we have. We need that to feel superior to you, praise our god! Her own very cute nephew responded to this destroying her arguments here. Sadly this grand Christian woman is part of a family that told that nephew that he was no longer welcome to family holiday celebrations including Christmas because he has the dreaded gay disease. I will try to find the link and put it here. Love you all but this shit is getting really hard on me personally. The drive to make us conform to their straight is accepted only due to their religion lifestyle or they will kill us / drive us from society is too much now. It seems they are on a desperate push, and either make or break to drive the LGBTQI+ from society and install their own scriptures as the rules we must live by. Anyway. Hugs
Vicky Hartzler’s gay nephew Andrew posted about his aunt crying over gay marriage on the House floor pic.twitter.com/Kxwt4DLEnF
The right-wing is dominating the discourse on trans rights and they’re doing it in the worst way possible. They are going after parents and medical professionals who try to help trans kids. But the facts and statistics are not on their side.
Bill and Jill, Simon’s grandparents (Photo: Simon Crowther)
Scottie's Playtime 