London: A UK school has sacked a 24-year-old Muslim teacher after she complained about its showing of a graphic video of the 9/11 terror attack in the US to a class of 11-year-olds.
Suriyah Bi lost her job at Birmingham’s Heartlands Academy after just a week and is has now taken legal action against a school. She is pursuing claims for unfair dismissal and religious discrimination.
The Oxford graduate said the graphic YouTube video carried a warning that the content was not suitable for under-18s.
“It raised questions about what safeguards there are in schools to protect children. These were children aged 11, of whom many knew little, or nothing, about the 9/11 horror,” Bi said.
She said the children were subjected to graphic scenes and some were “shocked and upset”.
“The video not only showed the plane crashing into the Twin Towers but also showed people committing suicide by jumping to their deaths from the tower blocks,” Bi said.
“Such young children should not been shown things like that because it is well-known that it can play on their minds and even induce them to kill themselves,” she was quoted as saying by ‘Birmingham Mail’.
Bi said she was in the classroom when the video was shown.
“It was shown to some 30 children during class. I understand the video was shown without the permission of the authorities,” Bi said.
“I quickly objected. Later, I was told to leave the school. There was an investigation into the matter but I was dismissed for making a whistle blowing complaint,” she said.
Birmingham employment tribunal has approved Bi’s bid to pursue legal claims against E-Act, who sponsor a number of academies, including Heartlands.
The organisation says it will oppose Bi’s claims, saying the she no longer wanted to work at the school.
The 9/11 were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the US on September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000 others.
PTI