Bible history teacher taught students ‘how to torture a Jew,’ Tennessee parent says
Update as of Feb. 11: Following an investigation, the Hamilton County School District said officials found no evidence the teacher instructed students about how to “torture” a Jewish person. The teacher also denied making the remark in a statement to McClatchy News, saying she is “personally offended by the statements that have been attributed to me.”
Original story: The teacher of a nonsectarian Bible History class offered at a public middle school in Tennessee is under fire after a parent accused her of blatant antisemitism and “Christian proselytizing” in the classroom.
Concerns over the lesson content came to a head on Feb. 2, when an eighth-grade student at East Hamilton Middle School in Apison, Tennessee, reportedly told her parents that the teacher had written the English transliteration of the Hebrew name for God on the board — which is traditionally not spoken aloud by Jews. The student and her family are Jewish.
“If you want to know how to torture a Jew,” the teacher was accused of saying, “make them say this out loud.”
Juniper Russo said in a Feb. 4 Facebook post describing the incident that her daughter “felt extremely uncomfortable” and “didn’t feel safe in the class,” prompting Russo to withdraw her.
East Hamilton Middle School is in the Hamilton County School District in Chattanooga. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 800 students attend the public school, which is less than a mile from the Georgia border in eastern Tennessee.
District clears teacher of wrongdoing
A spokesperson for the district confirmed in a statement to McClatchy News on Feb. 7 that officials were investigating the incident. The results of that investigation were released on Friday, Feb. 11.
According to the Hamilton County School District, officials interviewed the teacher, students who were in the classroom at the time and the parent who complained. They said when the teacher referenced the Hebrew name of God, she explained “that to hear or say that word would be a torturous or difficult experience for (Jewish people).”
“None of the students interviewed believed that the teacher was instructing them on how to torture a Jewish person or that her comments were rooted in malice,” the school district said.
As a result, officials said they could not “conclude that the teacher intended to actually instruct her students about how to ‘torture’ a Jewish person.”
“While it does not appear that the statement was intended to cause offense, it did,” the school district said. “No student should feel singled out or marginalized in class as a result of a teacher’s instruction.”
The accused teacher issued a statement through her lawyer following the results of the district’s investigation.
“I strongly support the equal and fair treatment for people of all religious, racial, and cultural backgrounds,” she said. “I am personally offended by the statements that have been attributed to me, and I unequivocally deny making them. I did not utter antisemitic remarks nor refuse a parent/teacher meeting.”
Caldwell Huckabay, an attorney representing the teacher, said she was “unjustly smeared online and in the media for allegedly saying something that she absolutely did not say, nor would she ever.”
“This is what happens when people rush to judgment without knowing the facts,” Huckabay said. “Fortunately, the Hamilton County School System took its time, conducted a thorough investigation of this matter, and arrived at the correct conclusion that my client said nothing of the sort.”
Huckabay said the teacher has offered to meet with the parent, the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga and the Anti-Defamation League to discuss what happened.
In the meantime, the school district said it’s “committed to restoring a positive learning experience between the teacher and students.”
‘Blatant Christian proselytizing’
According to Russo, her daughter enrolled in the elective Bible History class because of “disabilities that made the other available electives for the time block inaccessible to her.”
The class is taught as part of the Bible in the Schools program, in which 29 Hamilton County schools participate, according to the program website. It’s designed to be taught from a “non-sectarian, neutral perspective” based on the Bible as literature and does not promote any religion or doctrine, the website says.
Taxpayer dollars are not used to pay for the classes, and the teachers are hired directly by the school district.
Russo said her problems with the way Bible History was being taught at East Hamilton Middle started at the beginning of the semester and have steadily progressed. She said her daughter was given a questionnaire that asked students whether they read the Bible at home — which her daughter reportedly didn’t want to turn in because she didn’t “feel comfortable singling herself out as the Jewish student by telling the teacher her honest answers.”
On a separate occasion, Russo said, the class was given a true-or-false test question that asked whether it’s “important to read the Bible even if you are not Christian or Jewish” — with the correct answer being “true.” She said many of the assignments appeared to be “written from an evangelical Christian perspective,” and the teacher reportedly “discussed the Book of Genesis as if it were a factual account of the origin of the universe.”
“Despite being supposedly taught from a non-sectarian point of view, the entire class has been nothing but blatant Christian proselytizing,” Russo said in the post.
The Hamilton County School District said officials have investigated Russo’s allegations regarding the course content and a review committee has been formed “by the district’s partner” to evaluate the teaching materials.
Jewish Federation responds
Russo said she spoke with the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga and the Anti-Defamation League after the allegations came to light.
In a statement to McClatchy News, the Jewish Federation said it was aware of the incident and appreciated school officials taking it seriously.
“The Jewish Federation has a long history of working with our multi-faith partners as well as HCS to help create an appreciation for diversity and understanding of all faiths and cultures,” the federation said. “Moving forward, we look forward to a healthy dialog with the Bible in the Schools organization. Additionally, we hope they use this as an opportunity to reflect on and assess both their curriculum and how their teachers are presenting the material to ensure these classes are education, not indoctrination.”
A representative from the Bible in the Schools program did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Feb. 7.
The incident at East Hamilton Middle School falls on the heels of a recent controversy in neighboring McMinn County, where the school board voted Jan. 10 to remove “Maus” from its eighth-grade curriculum. The Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel is based on the Holocaust, but school board members said its use of profanity, violence and nudity was inappropriate for children, McClatchy News reported.
The banning prompted sales of “Maus” to skyrocket, catapulting it to the No. 2 best-selling book on Amazon and #1 in Jewish Holocaust History, U.S. Biographies and Literary Graphic Novels.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 1:41 PM with the headline "Bible history teacher taught students ‘how to torture a Jew,’ Tennessee parent says."
