A municipally employed teacher in Kristiansand has been prevented from wearing a Star of David around his neck. Kristiansand Adult Education Center, where the man works, ruled that the Jewish symbol could be deemed a provocation towards the many Muslim students at the school, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reports.
Teacher Inge Telhaug said he feels this is a violation of his freedom of speech.
"I can't accept this. It is a small star, 16 millimeters (0.6 inches) that I have around my neck, usually under a T-shirt. I see it as my right to wear it," Telhaug told NRK.
Telhaug teaches immigrants Norwegian language and culture at the education center. Telhaug is not Jewish.
"I see it as the oldest religious symbol we have in our culture, because without Judaism there would be no Christianity," Telhaug.
The principal of the school, Kjell Gislefoss, feels that the Star of David can also be interpreted as a political symbol for the state of Israel, and is afraid the star can provoke and offend students, for example immigrants from the Palestinian territories.
"The Star of David would be a symbol for one side in what is perhaps the world's most inflamed conflict at the moment. Many have a traumatic past that they have escaped and then we feel that if they are going to learn Norwegian then they can't sit an at the same time be reminded of the things they have traveled from," Gislefoss said.
Telhaug has hired a lawyer and refuses to give in. **Go on you. Give it a few weeks and they will be banning pigs like the cowards who run Dudley Council do.
** And PC nonsense from US schools.
A high-school senior who stayed seated during the playing of the Mexican National Anthem at a campus ceremony – fearing if he stood he might jeopardize his upcoming enlistment in the U.S. military – was reprimanded and sent to the school office.
The 17-year-old son of Robert Bedard of Elgin, Ill., a Chicago suburb, made the choice to stay seated during a ceremony honoring Mexican Independence Day at Larkin High School last month, the Daily Herald reported.
Bedard says his son was in the process of enlisting in the military and feared honoring another nation's anthem might jeopardize his status.
The boy's father, a lieutenant with the Elgin Fire Department, questioned how far cultural sensitivity has gone in his local schools.
"I am concerned that the Mexican Americans have unfairly monopolized the teaching of cultural awareness at this school," Bedard told the suburban paper. "At least that's the perspective of a parent. I'd love to be corrected."
According to the report, Latino students orchestrated an assembly for Mexican Independence Day, just as black students host an assembly commemorating black history month in February.
School board President Ken Kaczynski defended the celebration of different cultures.
"If we were teaching one culture's history over another, then we have an issue. But I don't think that's the case," Kaczynski said.
Last spring, a Larkin student wrote an essay lamenting the celebration of Mexican holidays in American schools, the Herald reported.
The teen faulted Mexican students, saying they shouldn't have lowered the American flag in favor of a Mexican flag on Sept. 16, 2004. School officials later said the American flag was raised again before class began.
"Of the ethnic groups at Larkin," Principal Richard Webb is quoted as saying, "the Hispanic group is growing at the most increased rate, and of that Hispanic group, the vast majority of students are Mexican-American."
Of the 2,550 students at Larkin High last year, 38.4 percent were Hispanic and nearly a quarter were new to English.
"If they have an assembly, I would be happy if they will not try to force students to honor patriotic elements of another culture unless they also honor our flag, our anthem as well," Bedard said. "It's just respect for both cultures." **Seems that common sense has vanished, he made no slurs or rascist remarks against Mexico in any way, explained his views and its insulting to him that he was forced to explain himself. If someone wishes to sat or stand during their own or another national anthem that is THEIR BUSINESS. If for instance he chose to sit during the UK's national anthem I would have no problem with that, and neither would most of my fellow citizens in this nation.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46703
1 people have spoken:
Just for the record, there's no prohibition against US servicemembers rendering appropriate honors to allied nations; in fact, it's the opposite. For example, an enlisted soldier should salute officers of all nations with whom the US has relationships with, and all servicemembers should render honors onto the flag of same nations. Should this kid have actually been in the military, he could have gotten in trouble for potentially offending an allied nation and causing an international incident, since his actions could have reflected on the nation.
Of course, he hadn't enlisted yet. So nobody should have expected him to know those rules. And even if he did, he wasn't a member of the military and they wouldn't apply to him anyway. As a private citizen, he has the right to express his beliefs about any other nation in any lawful way he chooses. The school system had no right to punish him for doing so.
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