A British school sacked a Muslim teaching assistant after she complained about a video showing the events on 9/11 to a class of 11-year-olds.
Suriyah Bi lost her job at Birmingham’s Heartlands Academy after just a week – and is now pursuing claims for unfair dismissal and religious discrimination, newspapers said.
The school said it will oppose Suriyah’s claims, and says the 24-year-old simply no longer wanted to work at the school.
The video was not mentioned in detail during the brief preliminary hearing which dealt with technical and legal matters.
But outside the hearing, Suriyah said: ‘It was shown to some 30 children during class. I understand the video was shown without the permission of the authorities. It raised questions about what safeguards there are in schools to protect children.
‘These were children aged 11, of whom many knew little, or nothing, about the 9/11 horror.
They were subjected to graphic scenes and some were shocked and upset. The video not only showed the plane crashing into the Twin Towers but also showed people committing suicide by jumping to their deaths from the tower blocks.”
She said such young children should not been shown things like that because it is well-known that it can play on their minds and even induce them to kill themselves.
‘I was in the classroom when the video was shown and I quickly objected. Later, I was told to leave the school.”