The Ministry of Education announced on Wednesday that the teacher who sparked
the recent controversy at Rabin High School in Kfar Saba will be suspended from
her role as organizer of the 12th-grade Holocaust- education trip to Poland,
scheduled for later this year.
The incident, which occurred on Sunday,
made headlines when a teacher accidentally emailed seniors at the school an
internal document containing disparaging comments written about them by their
teachers.
Among the remarks, students were characterized as “liar,” “not
so smart,” “speaks like a four-year-old,” “boy crazy,” as well as “grown baby”
and “sick.”
Students expressed their shock and anger with the document as
they arrived to school on Monday morning, carrying signs with what was said
about them in protest.
“I see this event with much gravity,” executive
director of the ministry Dalit Stauber said in a statement. “This was a
significant failure and those responsible will be held
responsible.”
Under Stauber’s instructions, the teacher will undergo a
disciplinary investigation and the school principal was summoned to a meeting
with the district director to “clarify the matter.”
In addition, the
ministry has appointed a professional team to manage the crisis at the
institution and made psychological assistance available to students.
The
school principal has issued a letter of apology to students and
parents.
Teachers were also asked to meet with them in order to apologize
to each of them in person.
Furthermore, the ministry said it will provide
school principals with clear guidelines on how to collect educational
information within a school in the appropriate manner. The school supervisor and
a district counselor will hold conversations with the teachers involved in the
incident to prevent such occurrences in the future.
“It broke the trust
with my teachers,” one of the students told Ynet on Monday. “I never believed
that they could write something like that.
I was surprised, in a bad
way.”
Yesh Atid MK and chairwoman of the lobby for the integration of
children with disabilities in the education system Karin Elharar also commented
on the issue earlier this week, calling the comments “abusive, insulting and
dismissive.”
“This is not about a human error from a teacher who
accidentally sent the email. This is about the fact that the document should not
have been created in the first place,” she said.
“How can we ask the
students to behave in an appropriate manner, if teachers show an example of
unworthy acts?” Elharar added.