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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
As summer heats up, the controversy over one teacher's claims of homophobia is boiling over
As Berlin braces itself for 35-degree days this week, the summer break cannot come soon enough for the capital's schoolchildren and teachers who are stuck in their classrooms for another month. Nowhere more than the Carl Bolle primary school. Temperatures have been rising steadily here after five months of revelations that, by comparison, make television's gritty Grange Hill look like Enid Blyton's Malory Towers. Last February Oziel Inácio-Stech, a 43-year-old Brazilian-born former teacher, announced he was suing the school and the local educational authority. He alleged they failed to support him when he subjected to a sustained campaign of homophobic bullying led by a group of pupils from mostly Muslim families. When Inácio-Stech's sexuality became known in the school, fifth-class pupils allegedly mocked him variously as a 'disgusting' person who was going to hell. Others, he said, called him a 'moral disgrace' to a school where, as one student reportedly said, 'Islam is the boss'. READ MORE Inácio-Stech left the school last September, citing concerns over his mental and physical health. Rather than go quietly, however, he has taken a lawyer to challenge what he sees as lax school controls, a powerless school board and, most critically, a disinterested state education minister. Supercharging the slow-burning story in recent days, however, are claims by Inácio-Stech that he was the subject of a complaint by a former colleague that he was 'too close' to some of the primary school students. The unnamed woman teacher reported him after seeing him sitting on cushions alongside two students, watching a smartphone video. After failed mediation attempts, Inacio-Stech left the school and launched legal action claiming at least two breaches of Berlin's anti-discrimination code. First: for allegedly failing to act on his complaints of homophobic discrimination. Second: its quick action in responding to the woman teacher's concerns about a homosexual teacher's physical proximity to students. The latter complaint appears to have evaporated: the two students in question later revoked their testimony of feeling 'uncomfortable' around Inacio-Stech. In documents seen by public broadcaster RBB, they said they were 'persuaded' by the unnamed teacher to make their remarks. Though a criminal complaint against Inacio-Stech has been dropped, the relevant Berlin school authority has yet to fully rehabilitate him. Unable to teach elsewhere as a result, Inacio-Stech went public with his case last February – infuriating Berlin's school authorities even further. After five months of revelations but no progress, tensions have ramped up further over claims that the woman who filed the complaint against Inácio-Stech was a regular drug user during work hours. Investigations by two Berlin newspapers, a national newspaper and even a public broadcaster indicate the concerns about this woman teacher were shared by at least six other colleagues at the school. They claim she had cocaine and ecstasy delivered to the school, consumed during school hours and, at times, had 'wide-open eyes'. Several teachers say they reported their concerns about the teacher to the school director, with no action taken. The Tagesspiegel newspaper reported at the weekend that the teacher in question was still working at the school and she declined to confirm or deny the drug allegations it put to her. The scandal has reached the highest political level in Berlin state politics: the capital's education senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch. Three weeks ago she accused opposition politicians of 'populism' over the case and insisted there were 'discrepancies' between the teacher's public claims of bullying by students and information in his personnel file. On Monday several opposition politicians were granted access to the file, bringing the scandal back to its roots. The personnel file appears to confirm the main details of the teacher's original complaint and contains a protocol of a meeting between him and the school personnel officer. The latter appears to acknowledge tacitly the problem of homophobia, noting the 'above-average number of children from traditional parental homes' – a nod to the large number of families with Turkish and Arab roots – which could 'possibly complicate the acceptance of diversity'. Blaming the victim for school homophobia is not uncommon in Germany , according to the Federal Association of Queer Education. It said that 'queer-hostile attitudes are now more vehement in the context of school than a few years ago'. A survey by a Berlin state body for queer education issues found that 82 per cent of non-heterosexual adolescents experienced discrimination at school while 52 per cent hid their identity. Though the group said 'queer hostility has reached a new high' in Berlin schools, the capital's city-state government has cut the group's budget by a third.
The Independent
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Muslims look forward to the annual Eid feast. Many Africans are now struggling to afford it
Muslim families across west Africa are grappling with the steep cost of rams for the traditional sacrifice that is central to the celebration of Eid al-Adha, a struggle that mirrors the region's deepening economic and humanitarian crises. At the Kara livestock market in southern Nigeria 's Ogun state, ram sellers and buyers are in a bind. Prices have at least doubled compared with last year, slowing sales for what is usually a busy market packed in the lead-up to Eid. 'The ram that I bought for 200,000 naira ($127) last year, this year we started negotiating from 600,000 naira ($380),' said Abiodun Akinyoye, who came to buy meat for the festival. The U.N. World Food Programme said last month that over 36 million people are struggling to meet basic food and nutrition needs in West Africa and Central Africa, a number expected to rise to 52 million during this year's lean season from June to August. More than 10 million of the most vulnerable people across the region have been uprooted by conflict, the WFP said, added to other major drivers like food inflation and climate conditions like extreme weather. 'We are at a tipping point and millions of lives are at stake,' said Margot van der Velden, WFP's regional director. With a majority of Muslim populations in most of the worst-hit countries, families who previously bought rams to take part in the annual joyful festival are finding it difficult to sustain that lifestyle with some spending significantly more of their disposable income on trying to fulfill the religious rites. 'Everyone is suffering,' Nigerian ram seller Jaji Kaligini said as he lamented the cost-of-living crisis fueled by President Bola Tinubu's economic policies, such as a sudden removal of subsidies. "We don't know what to do.' In countries like Niger, where growing insecurity have worsened the living conditions, the military government banned ram exports this year to stabilize local supply. While that has helped availability, it has affected tightened supplies in neighboring Nigeria and Benin. 'There's enough livestock (in Niger),' said Hasoumi Daouda, who was at a local market to buy ram. 'But it's the financial crisis that makes them too expensive to buy.' The challenge of hardship is also raising the question of how obligatory the ram sacrifice is for Muslims. The tradition is not mandatory for those who 'genuinely cannot afford it,' Bukola Hameed, a Nigerian Islamic scholar, said. However, those who can afford it also have 'a duty to share their meat with poorer neighbors,' another Islamic scholar, Mikail Adekunle, added. —--
