A Florida teacher lost their job this week after she mocked Muslim students for praying in class and attempted to disrupt their prayer session.
The teacher, who worked at Franklin Academy, was not identified by the school.
She could be heard calling the student’s prayers ‘magic’ and professing that she believed in Jesus as her reason for interrupting their prayer.
"I believe in Jesus so I'm interrupting the floor"
A Teacher in Franklin academy Florida disrupts Muslim students during prayers and steps on their Hands.#Islamophobia pic.twitter.com/dPeOshQoR1
— Munir A Hussein (@Munir566) December 8, 2022
“Hold on, this my office,” the teacher said. “And y’all doin’ all this magic.”
The teacher then blew a whistle in an attempt to break up the prayer session and almost stepped on a student’s hand.
“I believe in Jesus, so I’m interrupting the floor,” the teacher said.
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The students continued praying despite the teacher’s attempts to get them to stop, seeming undeterred by her comments.
“And why they in my office?” the teacher asks, to which someone else responds, “they’re praying.”
The TikTok video that brought the incident to light received millions of views and over 800,000 likes.
People were quick to react to the incident, saying that the teacher was out of line and that they were glad she was fired.
Glad #FranklinAcademy acted so quickly on this. What a wicked thing to do to those boys!
Florida teacher is fired after video showed her disrupting Muslim students mid-prayer. https://t.co/oG3YAz2FOw
— Bart Marcois (@bmarcois) December 10, 2022
Franklin Academy released a statement about the incident, saying they were made aware of “a very troubling TikTok video” on Thursday and that they “do not tolerate discriminatory behavior in any form.”
“While we do not discuss personnel matters, we can share that the teacher in question is no longer a member of the Franklin Academy staff,” the statement, posted to Facebook, read.
One user expressed their opinion that the teacher’s actions were both ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘unchristian’.
Clearly unconstitutional. Also unchristan.
— Kate Jones (@Tryn2BKind) December 10, 2022
Abdullah Jaber, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Florida chapter, said that it is important for schools to know about the different religious practices of students so they can remain respectful of different faiths.
“It is of utmost importance that school administrators and staff know basic faith practices to serve students practicing their faith, in this case, Muslims,” said Jaber.
CAIR-Florida Welcomes Firing of Teacher Who Made Anti-Muslim Comments to Students Performing Prayers in Viral TikTok video. Learn more: https://t.co/fjtjhP7gt3 pic.twitter.com/aatxfentE5
— CAIR–Florida (@CAIRFlorida) December 9, 2022
Video of the incident circulating online has received a uniformly negative response.
“She’s supposed to protect them,” one comment on TikTok, liked over 36,000 times read. “And be educated enough to know that isn’t magic, that they’re just praying!”
A Twitter user noted that Muslims also believe in Christians, responding to the teacher’s reason for interrupting the student’s prayers.
“I believe in Jesus so I’m interrupting the floor,” the teacher is heard saying in a viral TikTok video before stepping over the students as they prayed.
Much like Christians, Muslims believe in Jesus as well.
Latest for @NBCNews https://t.co/zKSwBu77QX
— Mirna Alsharif ميرنا الشريف (@mirna_alsharif) December 10, 2022
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis frequently has championed religious liberty in schools. Last year, he signed a bill that made public schools set aside at least one minute every day for students to pray or meditate.
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