The Toronto District School Board is the largest school board in Canada, and it is also willfully fostering an ignorance of the world in its students that only creates hatred and division.
Nadia Murad is a Noble Peace Prize-winning Author and Human Rights Activist who has recently released a book about her harrowing experience of being kidnapped and sold into sex slavery at the tender age of 14 by the Islamic State. Murad was supposed to participate in a book club event with students from the Toronto School District but the School District has decided to forbid students from participating.
Canadian school cancels ISIS survivor Nadia Murad over Islamophobia fears https://t.co/f6bmKWEYaX pic.twitter.com/T1uhBA45kk
— New York Post (@nypost) November 27, 2021
According to the Telegraph Helen Fisher, the superintendent at the Toronto District School Board has forbidden students from attending the event. Her reasoning is that she fears Murad’s book, “The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State,” will offend some students and “foster Islamophobia.”
A School Board with No Concept of Reality
Tonya Lee, the organizer for the Book Club, was sincerely confused over the Superintendent’s decision. She wrote informing Ms. Fisher who ISIS was so she would not be so uninformed.
The reason provided by the Canadian school to justify its decision was that the book written by her could “promote Islamophobia” and “offend” the Muslim studentshttps://t.co/KyMB7UJQZM
— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) November 27, 2021
“This is what Islamic State means,” Lee wrote Fisher in an email. “It is a terrorist organization. It has nothing to do with ordinary Muslims. The TDSB should be aware of the difference.”
Fisher responded to Ms. Lee’s email by sending her a copy of the school board’s “policy on selecting equitable, culturally relevant and responsive reading materials.”
While interviewed by the Telegraph Lee said:
“The book club event for ‘A Room Of Your Own Book Club’ with Nadia Murad will go ahead across Canada in February. The TDSB has not committed to letting their students attend. This is unfortunate for all involved. A great loss to the students, community, and educators at the TDSB.
The school board withdrawing their support means that they are not putting their students first— only their administration. Nadia Murad is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning author and Human Rights Activist. We have so much to learn from her about the Triumph of The Human Spirit and the Will and The Ability to help others overcome tragedy. Nadia and her activism is an example to us all in all societies around the world.”
https://twitter.com/stephantual/status/1464933240914026499
Superintendent Fisher’s decision was apparently not shared by all in the School District. In an effort to mitigate the uproar that her decision had made the District released this statement:
“An opinion that did not reflect the position of the Toronto District School Board was shared with the organizer of the book club prior to staff having an opportunity to read the books — something that is routinely done before giving them to students.”
https://twitter.com/WasiqUK/status/1464176863132073990
“Staff are currently reading both books and anticipate being able to add them to the list of titles used in the corresponding course(s),” added the statement.
