Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Message found; teacher quits 'Destroy America' embedded in puzzle

The average American would be flabbergasted at the number of incidents like this (to a greater or lesser extent) that occur on a daily basis in our learning institutions.

A message embedded in a Spanish assignment that included the words "destroy America" has led a teacher to resign and sparked concerns among parents at a Johnston County high school.

Students said former Smithfield-Selma High Spanish teacher Khalid Chahhou gave them an extra-credit "word search" Thursday that required them to translate vocabulary words and find them in a grid of letters.

They started seeing other words such as "destroy" and "terrorist" and eventually put together a few sentences that decry violence against Palestinians and appear to condemn the United States for its involvement in the conflict.

Students alerted the school administration, which confronted Chahhou. Chahhou resigned from the district late Thursday. When reached by phone Monday, he confirmed this account but refused to comment further on the incident.

Shakil Ahmed, president of the Islamic Association of Cary, said Chahhou told him he had made the puzzle when he was upset after seeing news reports of deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli troops.

No comments: