Tuesday, August 30, 2005
SOUL MOURNED
A student at a top Melbourne state school writes to Andrew Bolt:
The day after it had become apparent the George Bush had won the US election and Mark (not his real name) was appearing slightly jubilant in my maths class—my teacher (who also happens to be the union rep at the school) asked him to look in her eyes and swear he was happy about Dubya’s re-election.
When he did so, she announced to the class: ‘We should hold a minutes silence for the passing of Mark’s soul’.”
UPDATE. More Melbourne school news from The Age’s Geoff Strong:
The warning signs were apparent to Chris Doig at least 10 years ago. A small group of the teacher’s students made it clear they despised Australia, regarding it as a degenerate culture to be disrupted and ultimately swept aside.
Two Muslim students danced with joy after the September 11 attacks in the United States. Other students told him these attitudes came out of ideas picked up at Melbourne’s northern suburbs mosques.
The teacher says he tried to voice concern to his school administration, to the Education Department bureaucracy, even to senior political figures in his own Labor Party, but his warnings were ignored.
Via reader Andrew Richards, who notes two differences between the print and web versions of this story:
Web headline: “Australia-hating Muslims unchecked, says teacher”
Print headline: “School system ‘failed to act’ on Australia-hating students”
Web conclusion: “The teacher said these students used to boast that Australia would become a majority Islamic country in 50 years. ‘They would do this by converting the infidel and by out-breeding the rest of the community.’”
Print conclusion: “The teacher said these students used to boast that Australia would become a majority Islamic country in 50 years.”