Muslim educator Bahira Abdulsalam says a Windsor elementary school teacher’s tirade against Muslim students who abstained from the school’s pride day was hurtful.
In the recording exclusively obtained by True North, a teacher at Northwood Public School tells her class the Muslim students’ abstention over religious reasons was “disgusting” and “an incredible show of hatred” that made her not want to be their educator.
The incident took place amid reports of a very high absence rate at the school on its pride day. According to Life Site News, approximately 600 out of the school’s 800 students stayed home – a 75% absentee rate.
In an interview with True North, Abdulsalam said the incident was “so hurtful” and shows Canadians need to re-evaluate the criteria of selecting their educators.
Abdulsalam is an educator and scholar from Toronto, Ontario. She currently sits on the Toronto District School Board’s Parent Involvement Advisory Committee. She also ran for mayor in the 2023 mayoral by-election
In the recording, the teacher also condemns the Muslim students after they tell her they can’t change their religion to have it support LGBTQ lifestyles, and instructs the students to challenge their parents’ beliefs.
“Those kids, they will get confused. They have a certain identity at home and at school they are asked to change their identity,” said Abdulsalam.
She believes the teacher was “trying to make a disconnection between kids and their parents,” when she indicated that views held by Muslim parents are old-fashioned and ought to be challenged.
Abdulsalam, who has participated in protests against gender ideology in recent weeks, says Muslims are not against LGBTQ people, but oppose the teaching of gender ideology in schools.
“We don’t have any problem with them,” she said. “We are caring about our children, and we don’t want them to get the LGBT ideology.”
“There is a real problem in our schools… where they are taking an extreme side of the LGBT.” She says the latter is “not only in the sex education class, it is in all the signs in schools and all the environment.”
She also said that Muslims are not against the idea of sex education – but believe the latter must be age appropriate and take into account people’s moral views about sex.
“There are some principles and some ways of teaching sex principles that are aligned with our religion,” she said. “(But) we don’t want the students or our children at a very early (age) to (receive) sex education.”
Abdulsalam believes there needs to be more transparency around sex education, and that schools should give parents access to the sex-ed materials before they are taught to students in class.
A Leger poll commissioned by SecondStreet.org echoed Abdulsalam’s belief and found that 47% of Canadians believe schools should allow parents to view sensitive gender identity materials before they are taught to kids. Just 31% disagreed.
Abdulsalam also said parents must have the option to opt-out their kids from sex-ed – an option the Ontario government currently offers to parents.
The Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) issued a statement in response to the incident at Northwood, in which it said the incident “is being addressed internally.”
