One student from Israel and another from Palestine in Yr 7 (11 year olds)
Palestinian student is very quiet and diligent
A group of trouble-makers are also in the class
Always looking for instances to pick up some trouble.
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One of the trouble makers got a “bright” idea to draw a Palestinian flag and put it on the desk of the Jewish girl.
She told the other children in her group and they agreed and went ahead.
Needless to say, the jewish girl was very upset and started to cry
She thought it was the Palestinian boy who had done it.
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I intervened and we all went to the resolution room and since we do not have a psychologist at school, and once I have a good background of psychology, I tried to get to the bottom of this.
Knowing the character of the Palestinian boy and the fact that the culprits owned up, it was not difficult to know who did this cowardly act.
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The Jewish girl was very upset but at the same time releaved that it was not the Palestinian boy who had done it.
I confronted the 3 girls who had carried out the act and asked them whether they knew what was going on in Israel, but as I expected, none of them had any idea what the conflict was about.
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I had to inform the girls’ parents about this. They were all very upset about it and answered me that none of them knew what the conflict was about.
The parents explained explained to the girls, as I did too, what was going on in Isreal and made them realise that what they had done was a cowardly act with which they wanted to get the Palestinian boy in trouble.
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The group excused themselves with the Jewish girl and I was satisfied that they had understood the gravity of their doing. This could have got the Palestinian boy into trouble as anyone could have thought that it was he who had put the flag on the girl’s desk.
The Isreali girl obviously knew exactly what was going on in Isreal and what the whole conflict was about. She was annoyed with the behaviour of the group but when I explained to her what the war was about, she forgave them and calmed down.
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I took this incident seriously because the aim of the culprits was actually to get someone else into trouble. I think it was a cowardly act which could have had serious consequences. Had the culprits not owned up we could have thought that it was the Palestinian boy who had place the flag on the girl’s desk in order to tease her. It was also a good example of peer pressure which is very common at that age. It was one girl who had got the idea and the others, even though they had no idea what it meant, went ahead with the plan.
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I tried to explain to the girls that they should not do things without a reason and should understand and be responsible for their actions.
I made them realise that they knew that what they did could have brought someone innocent into trouble and they still went ahead with the plan.
The girl whose idea it was ahs a very strong and influencing character and easily got her friends on her side and do what she wanted them to do.
The incident gave me the opportunity to explain to the students that even though we come from different countries, and have different cultures, religions, skin colour and languages, we are all one united family.