An elementary school teacher in England has been fired for allegedly cracking a joke about students being "sent to the gas chambers" if they failed to finish their work.
According to parents of 10-year-old students at the Newberries Primary School in Hertfordshire, the teacher in question on Thursday told the class: "You better finish off your work quick, or I'll ship you all off to the gas chambers."
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Of the 28 students in the class, 11 are Jewish.
The teacher reportedly apologized afterwards, saying she had been "joking" and asking the students not to tell anyone. The students nevertheless reported the anti-Semitic comment to parents, who expressed outrage on school WhatsApp group chats. The teacher was fired the next day.
A spokesman for Newberries Primary School said, "We can confirm that last week we were made aware that an alleged racist comment had been made by an agency teacher working within the school. We acted on this immediately, and our governors and leadership team are undertaking a full investigation. The agency teacher will not be returning."
The school said that religious leaders from different faith groups would be invited to speak to the children, as they have done in previous years.
Newberries is situated in a commuter village where about one-quarter of the 8,000 residents identify as Jewish, according to the UK's Daily Mail.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
