Name, school district, and backup information about a New York teacher
in the public schools (NYC or NY state) who was suspended following
Septmber 11, 2001 because said teacher told his/her students that the
9/11 attackers were Arabs.

Hello.

As reported by Fox News on February 4, 2002, the incident happened at
a Brooklyn public school. The teacher was Deborah Schwartz, 54, a
17-year veteran.

The Fox item references an article at the New York Post:
MAKING TEACHERS THE SACRIFICIAL LAMBS 
New York Post; New York; Jan 26, 2002; ANDREA PEYSER
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nypost/abstract/102908154.html?did=102908154&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&desc=MAKING+TEACHERS+THE+SACRIFICIAL+LAMBS

The incident also was reported by the Long Island Wave:
http://www.rockawave.com/News/2002/0202/Columnists/From_the_Editor%27s_Desk0202.html

search strategy: "saying that arabs," "deborah schwartz" arabs

I hope this helps.

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 26 Sep 2002 22:04 PDT

Oops. The link for that Fox item was:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,44664,00.html

You may have read or heard about a recent piece by columnist Mona
Cheren in which she writes "In New York ... a teacher was suspended
merely for telling her class that all the individuals who attacked
this country on September 11 were Arabs."
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/mc20020830.shtml
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20020902-3879550.htm

I have been unable to uncover any other reference to this specific
incident, let alone the teacher's name.  Perhaps someone else can
locate the info.

As you may know, there *were* teachers in other states who were
suspended for various post-9-11 actions:
http://www.thefire.org/offsite/data/nytimes_112601.html
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=14969
http://www.ncac.org/issues/freeex911.html

You may want to try contacting Mona Cheren directly to see if she will
reveal more information as to the teacher's identity.  Perhaps the
story she related is an urban legend.
Web form to send a message to Mona:
http://www.creators.com/opinion_writetheauthor.cfm?pg=write&columnsname=mch

Good luck,

leep-ga

search term used:
"new york" teacher suspended hijackers arabs

Fascinating.

I have found, on two sites, a mention of this incident without any
corroborative details:

"In New York (the NEA would like this), a teacher was suspended merely
for telling her class that all of the individuals who attacked this
country on Sept. 11 were Arabs."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/mc20020830.shtml

"In New York, a teacher was suspended merely for telling her class
that all of the individuals who attacked this country on Sept. 11 were
Arabs."

http://timpeck.home.mindspring.com/2002_08_01_archive.html

The site linked below lists several accounts of post-9/11
overreactions that resulted in teachers being suspended. In no case
described was the teacher from a New York public school, however:

http://www.freeexpression.org/fenfree911.htm#schools

This is beginning to sound like an urban legend. I couldn't find it at
Snopes.com, but I am suspicious that several stories may have been
combined into one, as often happens with rumors of a political nature.

The link below is not the story you're looking for, but it is worth
reading. Bill Moyers elicits information about a university
professor's 9/11-related suspension here:

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/acfreedom.html