Dec. 10 (UPI) — A teacher at a charter school in Florida has been fired after she allegedly accused praying Muslim students of performing “magic,” school officials said.
The teacher, who was not identified, was caught on a video reviewed by UPI that went viral on TikTok disrupting three praying students as one of them recited “Surah At-Tin” from the Quran.
The incident occurred at Franklin Academy, which has locations in Broward and Palm Beach counties, and was first reported by NBC News.
“Hold on, this my office and y’all doing all this magic,” the teacher says in the video as the students continue to pray. “I don’t know what’s going on over here. I believe in Jesus so I’m interrupting the floor, and why you in my office?”
The video was first posted to TikTok on Wednesday and school officials said in a statement that they first became aware of it on Thursday.
“Earlier today, a very troubling TikTok video was shared with our leadership team. At Franklin, we do not tolerate discriminatory behavior in any form,” the statement reads.
“While we do not discuss personnel matters, we can share that the teacher in question is no longer a member of the Franklin Academy staff. We look forward to continuing our IB initiatives of creating a better and more peaceful world through intercultural & racial understanding and mutual respect.”
The school later added in another statement that another teacher was being “mistakenly and falsely identified in the comments of many social media posts” as the teacher who was fired.
