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Student: Teacher Made Offensive Comments About Muslims

POSTED: Thursday, January 24, 2008
UPDATED: 11:32 pm EST January 24,2008

A Clay County teen spoke out Thursday against a teacher who she said made offensive comments regarding Muslims and terrorism.

Ferzana Rajpoot, whose parents were born in Pakistan, said that at one point in class her teacher referred to all Muslims as terrorists.

According to the 16-year-old student, the comments came during an extra credit psychology class last week at Orange Park High School.

Rajpoot said she knows the teacher well and had respect for him, but that has changed after what she said the teacher told the class. Now, she refuses to return to the teacher's classroom.

"I should be there right now actually, but I don’t want to be in that classroom," Rajpoot said.

She said the teacher made the comments as he talked about why he favored a certain presidential candidate.

"'(He'd) keep all Muslim terrorists out the United States.' So, of course me being a young Muslim, I was like, 'Are all Muslims considered terrorists now?'" He said, 'Yes, they are,'" said Rajpoot. "I calmly tried to explain that not all Muslims are terrorists, we're not planning out a jihad or anything, and he just told me I don't know anything, I'm wrong and to sit down."

The district official who oversees the night courses at the high school told Channel 4 the district is aware of the claims the student has made and the alleged incident is under investigation.

Rajpoot's father, Mohammed Shahid, has enlisted the help of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He said the group has contacted the school district.

"We are trying to correct him and we're trying to tell them what he did was wrong, and we still like him as a teacher and respect him," said Shahid.

With two years left at Orange Park High, Rajpoot said she doesn’t plan to take any more classes with the teacher who she said made the inappropriate comments.

"He should get some type of consequence. He's an educator, but he needs to be educated. That's how I feel," Rajpoot said.

The school district continues to investigate the allegations against the teacher.
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