Teacher banned for spraying asian kids

Maxinquaye · Feb 15, 2011

If it actually wasn't a very serious racist thing to do, which should not garner much laughing, I could not help chuckle a bit at this bit of news out of the UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/15/teacher-banned-air-freshener-asian

A teacher has been banned from classrooms after spraying children of Asian origin with air freshener if she said she smelled curry.

Elizabeth Davies, 48, was struck off for at least two years for the way she treated children in her primary school class.

The reason I chuckled is that half of my English friends would have asked the kids where they could find a decent curry, considering that curry is a part of the staple diet. Particularly the undecent one that makes the English search for the decent curry with such energy.

It would be like an Arizona teacher spraying kids of mexican origin if they smelled of Tacos.

Zoombie · Feb 15, 2011

It'd be okay if he was spraying everyone.

blacbird · Feb 15, 2011

Zoombie said:
It'd be okay if he was spraying everyone.

Well, no. Just a slightly different form of stupidity. This teacher should be banned for good, solely on that score.

Zoombie · Feb 15, 2011

Well, it'd be okay in a 'less racist' way...but still as stupid.

fireluxlou · Feb 15, 2011

That sounds humiliating. Poor kids.

DeaK · Feb 15, 2011

Wow. What a horrible person. I don't ever use air fresheners in my home, because of how toxic they are.

What's in it?

There are four basic ingredients in air fresheners: formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, p- dichlorobenzene, and aerosol propellants.
What health and safety precautions do you need to think about when using air freshners?

Air fresheners are usually highly flammable and also strong irritants to eyes, skin, and throat. Additionally, the solid fresheners usually cause death if eaten by people or pets.

http://www.epa.gov/kidshometour/products/airf.htm

billythrilly7th · Feb 15, 2011

Horrible thing to do, but chuckle worthy nonetheless.

Devil Ledbetter · Feb 15, 2011

I guess I'm humorless because I don't find this even remotely funny. The teacher humiliated children based on their race. Am I missing something?

Maxinquaye · Feb 15, 2011

Yup, it is slightly funny, and the joke is on the teacher. Curry is endemic in England. Everyone eats it. Singling out Bangladeshi children is not only evil, racist, and generally bad. It is also inutterably stupid.

Did you know that one of the flagship Indian recipes, Chicken Tikka Masala, is actually Scottish? It was (possibly) invented in Glasgow's West End in the 1970s.

Devil Ledbetter · Feb 15, 2011

Maxinquaye said:
Yup, it is slightly funny, and the joke is on the teacher.

The joke on the teacher would only be funny to me if the parents of those poor kids held her down and sprayed air freshener into her nostrils until she had an aneurysm.

fireluxlou · Feb 15, 2011

She also made them stand on newspaper if they wet themselves and washed their hands with disinfectant. Not funny at all.

Teaching assistant Wendy Roe alleged she used the words "black bastards" in a low whisper on more than one occasion. Asked if she thought Davies was discriminating against the children on the grounds of their race, Roe said: "I think so. I feel she had a problem with them."

Davies denied five allegations of spraying aerosol at pupils, washing pupils' hands in disinfectant and making children stand on newspaper after they accidentally wet themselves.

She was also accused of asking her support staff to spray the children at the 260-pupil Hafod primary school in Swansea, south Wales.

Devil Ledbetter · Feb 15, 2011

You know, if a teacher told my little Dondi lookalike Italian son that he smelled like garlic and sprayed him with air freshener, I'd be waiting for her ass in the parking lot with a baseball bat.

I guess I'm not very tolerant of the racist humiliation of children.

darkprincealain · Feb 15, 2011

Her license plate should end in the letter R for the next three years and vigilantes ought to be allowed to come after her with curry powder. :sarcasm

On a more serious note, she should thank her lucky stars I'm not the decision maker above her. If she can't be asked not to be racist and not to spray children (I don't care what the substance is, frankly), two years strikes me as a slap on the wrist.

blacbird · Feb 15, 2011

Maxinquaye said:
Yup, it is slightly funny,

You have an unusual sense of humor.

JimmyB27 · Feb 16, 2011

It's funny, but not 'ha-ha' funny.

MarkEsq · Feb 16, 2011

I'm with those who don't find this even a little bit funny. I've been known to laugh at some weird things, but humiliating kids isn't one of them.

Satori1977 · Feb 16, 2011

She is humiliating children, and spraying them with something that could be quite dangerous if in the face. Two years is a slap on the wrist. Even if she stops doing this, her attitude and views won't change. She shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children.

DavidZahir · Feb 16, 2011

The only thing funny about this is that she was stupid enough to think she'd get away with it. On the other hand--only two year suspension????? I hope she's blackballed.

PinkAmy · Feb 16, 2011

Glad to hear this poor-excuse-for-a-teacher isn't spreading her "education" with students.

Priene · Feb 16, 2011

DavidZahir said:
On the other hand--only two year suspension????? I hope she's blackballed.

There are two different penalties here: an indefinite ban on teaching, and a two year ban on reapplying for registration with the Teaching Council of Wales.

As far as I've been able to find, a two year ban on reapplying is the maximum the TCW hands out. That doesn't mean they'll be readmitted when they're allowed to reapply.

regdog · Feb 16, 2011

Adding to the not funny in any way chorus. What if one of the children she sprayed had been an asthmatic or had allergies. She could have killed the child.

McTheebs · Feb 16, 2011

It's funny because it's a stupid thing to do.

For those who are outraged, lighten up.

The kid who got sprayed probably wasn't scarred for life.

One day he'll look back on the memory just as people today look back on teachers hitting them with rulers.

Shakesbear · Feb 16, 2011

McTheebs said:
It's funny because it's a stupid thing to do.

For those who are outraged, lighten up.

The kid who got sprayed probably wasn't scarred for life.

One day he'll look back on the memory just as people today look back on teachers hitting them with rulers.

That is your opinion and you are welcome to it. However, saying the

The kid who got sprayed probably wasn't scarred for life.

is, imho, condoning the actions of the teacher.

Yup, it is slightly funny, and the joke is on the teacher. Curry is endemic in England. Everyone eats it.

Maxinquaye you seem to view the English as a mass of stereotypes which is somewhat insulting. The assumption that all English people eat curry is about as accurate as saying that all gay men wear makeup.

Devil Ledbetter · Feb 16, 2011

McTheebs said:
It's funny because it's a stupid thing to do.

For those who are outraged, lighten up.

The kid who got sprayed probably wasn't scarred for life.

One day he'll look back on the memory just as people today look back on teachers hitting them with rulers.

There is stupid-funny and stupid-unfunny. Humiliating children on racial grounds falls into the latter category, IMO and no, I won't lighten up. My "problem" isn't a lack of humor but a sense of right and wrong.

Cranky · Feb 16, 2011

I'm with Devil. This isn't even remotely funny, and telling people who are outraged to lighten up? Yeah, not going to fly here, thank you.

Teacher banned for spraying asian kids

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