MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A teacher at a northeast Miami-Dade elementary school has been removed from her seventh-grade classroom after making an anti-Israeli comment to her Jewish students.
As war rages in the Middle East between Israel and terrorist group Hamas, the teacher told students to pray for Palestine and called Israelis “baby killers,” a mother who spoke to Local 10 News Friday said.
It happened at the public Aventura Waterways K-8 Center, located at 21101 NE 26th Ave. in the unincorporated Ojus area, just outside of the Aventura city limits.
Aventura and the surrounding area have a large number of Jewish residents.
The student’s mother, who is originally from Israel, was “frighten(ed)” to hear what her daughter told her happened inside of her classroom.
“On Monday, my daughter (told) me that he teacher asked the kids to pray for the Palestinian(s),” the woman, who asked not to be identified, said. “My daughter felt very uncomfortable.”
She said multiple children reported hearing the same thing.
Another parent added over the phone, “I’m extremely worried and my kids are frightened.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Miami-Dade County Public Schools said the district “takes any allegations of employee misconduct seriously.”
“As such, the teacher in question has been removed from the school, and will not be permitted contact with students, pending the outcome of an investigation,” the spokesperson said.
Several other parents told Local 10 News that another teacher at the school forced a Jewish student to take off his yarmulke, or kippah, a Jewish head covering.
“The boy was wearing a kippah and she told him, ‘You have to take off your kippah. You’re not allowed to wear a hat,’” another parent said.
Local 10 News is not naming the teacher removed from the classroom since the investigation is ongoing, but parents say she is relatively new at the school.
They said they are relieved the school took immediate action.