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Reuters has a sad story today about a young Staten Island man named Osama Al-Najjar. He now goes by "Sammy," but insists that family members still call him Osama in private. His given name was relatively innocuous until 2001, when it became shorthand for the infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden. After being taunted as "bin Laden" and "terrorist" at his high school, Al-Najjar attempted suicide twice in one day via pills and hanging. Upon entering high school, the junior high honors student started encountering the abuse, and was soon failing classes and getting into fights. His family eventually withdrew Osama after complaints about the racist abuse being heaped on their son at Tottenville High School were not dealt with by the school. And surprisingly, the abuse was not at the hands of his peers; the hateful taunts were emanating from Al-Najjar's teachers, who were his primary tormentors. He now attends a special school for children with "school phobias" in Brooklyn.
We think this is terrible, especially considering that Osama's oldest brother served in the Navy during the war in Iraq. But we also have a few concerns about the Reuters piece itself, which states that Al-Najjar's immature early-teen classmates were fairly benevolent in view of his coincidental name with a terrorist leader, and that it was his teachers who were dishing out the cruel treatment. This rings oddly to us, if our remembrances of high school serve as any guide. Also, the piece ties in a long discursion regarding the Khalil Gibran Academy and the opposition it has faced, as well as Islamophobia faced by Muslims in recent years, including children. And the Al-Najjar family is suing NYC.
We feel that our previous posts regarding the Khalil Gibran Academy have been generally positive regarding the proposed bi-lingual school. The Reuters piece, however, sounds like a badly contrived press release in its favor, rather than a news story. We wish Osama Al-Najjar a taunting-free future and continue to think that the Kahlil Gibran Academy's attempt at bi-lingual education is a great idea. Reuters, on the other hand, we may have to take with a large grain of salt going forward.
(Public School, by warsze at flickr)
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Yeah no kidding. I find it hard to believe that the teachers were the primary tormentors. Not to say that one teacher couldn't or wouldn't do that. But multiple teachers acting like 12 year olds on a school yard...not so likely...
You "feel" that Reuters must be inaccurate, despite having no evidence of your own. There's really nothing compromised about the piece at all. To call it a "badly contrived press release" is silly for two reasons: It ignores that longstanding pillar of journalism, the news hook (of course it's "contrived," that's how pieces get put together); and it ascribes positive bias to a piece of pretty straight reporting. I see no evidence that the writer is trumpeting the Khalil Gibran school -- after merely stating that it is going to open, speaking of "efforts in New York to bridge the gap between Americans and the Arab world" (a rather bland, inoffensive statement), he gives a dull few paras to the opposition before returning to young Osama. Where's the beef?
What the average person experiences in school doesn't equate what one experiences for being "different" in any way. It can basic things, like having a different accent, having an unpopular hairstyle, or dressing in a non-conformist way--or even questioning authority.
Though I'm not all that different (white, healthy, etc.) I've encountered many teachers bordering on sociopaths, that take an evil delight in tormenting innocent children, or taking their frustrations out on them. In my case it was probably questioning convention--something teachers seem to hate.
There is no evidence anywhere that teachers have any less psychological problems than any other demographic. The recent wave of statutory rape is one indicator. Get them off the pedestal, they aren't a bunch of monks here. BTW-ask someone from a Catholic school about sadistic bullies at the lecturn...
Teachers can also be a-holes and use stereotype to taunt and ridicule students. They single you out more if you're more of a smaller minority group which this student was.
Why is that so hard to believe?
Tottenville HS is a hell-hole. I believe the article.
I completely agree with Guest #3. For a lot of teachers, it's a power trip, and they do take pleasure in mocking and shunning certain students. I know because I witnessed it firsthand in my own school. There were students who were openly victimized and humiliated by the teachers. If you think the administration helps in such cases, that's a laugh. Schools routinely look the other way when students attack and bully their peers; they similarly defend and ignore abuse perpetrated by the teachers on staff.
I have no doubt that Reuters was completely accurate.
I totally believe that the teachers were the worst offenders in this story. 90 per cent of teachers I have encountered in the public school system were jerks. They were also helping student to cheat on Regents and A.P. exams in order to keep their grade averages up for their class. And I was in a "good school," namely Benjamin N. Cardozo HS in Bayside. This is what happens when you don't want to pay teachers well -- you get all the dregs of the system teaching your kids.
this is why kids will and should record any outburst or questionable comments made by teachers.
in response to "guest" at 4:53 PM:
It was a throw away line, I understand, but stereotypical nonetheless that you made at the end of your post regarding bullying teachers at Catholic schools. While clearly in the past it had some basis in fact, that is a stereotype whose origins have largely gone by the wayside in the past couple of decades. I spent 13 years (k through 12) in Catholic school and none of my teachers, nor any of the other teachers in my school, would have fit within the description of "sadistic bullies". I was someone who routinely questioned authority and pushed the rules to the limits, testing boundaries, testing reactions, asking everyone's least favorite question of "why", and almost every teacher I had encouraged and accepted me. Even those who didn't, or who weren't amused by my actions, went out of their way to treat me, as they did every student, by the rules (even when you could see the annoyed look on their face).
i love how people forget what it was like to be in school. sure, some of the teachers may have joked about the kid's name, but that his classmates didn't? that's bullshit. kids are assholes & you can bet that he was tormented by his classmates constantly. that's why the reuters piece is bullshit. this is the same organization that didn't notice the piss-poor photochop by the photographer during the war with hezbollah. reuters sucks.
You forget this was in Staten Island. We know the students could be tormenters, that's a given.
but why is it so hard to believe a teacher would have the same attitude.
PS 29 in the Bronx. The Melrose school. There was a child there named Saddam Hussein and he was the subject of abuse by students AND Teachers. I work there and remember it well. The ESL teacher (who is still there) tried her best to shield him from both kids and adults. I have no doubt it happened at Tottenville as well.
Children often look to their teachers for behavior cues. If any teacher was taunting this student, the children would quickly follow suit, thinking it was acceptable. Teachers are human and bring their prejudices to the classroom whether or not we want to accept it. As a victim myself of abuse from teachers while a student in catholic school, I had no problem believing the story. I transferred schools when the administration ingnored the problem. Few people want to believe that some teachers are just jerks. Especially ones that are supposed to be doing "God's work".
As an Iranian American who lived through elementary school during the late '70s Iranian hostage crisis, I found this story heartbreaking. I was a scrawny little kid, but I remember at one point rolling in teh grass trying to ward off one of my most persistent tormentors. My teacher, a leathery weathered tough-love dustbowl-era Okie woman, scooped me up off the ground and hugged me and told me she understood what I was going through. Would that I (or someone, anyone) could have done the same for Osama.