Public schools in Calgary, Canada are struggling to integrate often-violent Syrian migrants into the education system, according to internal documents from the Calgary Board of Education.
Obtained by news outlet The Rebel in a freedom of information request, the documents reveal a clash of cultures taking place in the region’s schools between Syrian students and Canadian students and teachers.
The documents show a pattern of threats and physical violence directed at Canadian children by the Syrian migrants, who have struggled to accept Canadian values of tolerance, gender equality and religious pluralism. School officials have struggled to keep the Syrian students from punching, slapping and even throwing rocks at the other students.
Girls aren’t exempt from the physical abuse, either.
In one email, an elementary school teacher noted the “rough treatment” a first grade girl has received from some of the Syrian boys. (RELATED: Canadian Newspaper Censors Refugee Abuse Of Elementary Students)
“We have basically decided to separate [the boys from the girls] because of our lack of success with mitigating the boys’ violent behavior,” the principal continued, before asking higher-ups for “some direction as to how I should proceed with this.”
In another email with the subject line “Comments of serious concern,” the principal noted that a first-grade Syrian boy, who — upon finding out his teacher was not a Muslim — said, “You guys don’t believe in God so it would be better to kill you.”
Similarly, a middle school principal wrote to the board, “Some of the boys in our Syrian student cohort are setting up conflict based on religious beliefs. I propose a system-created way of responding to this, and of teaching our cultural values. It’s very sensitive — we are un-teaching foundational beliefs.”
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One teacher noted that a handful of Syrian boys were refusing to participate in a cooking class because “this is women’s work, not for men.”
“This is ongoing behavior that interrupts the daily activities in our classes (my class, Science class, Social/LA classes),” the teacher continued.
Another teacher noted that one Syrian student “becomes quite emotional when his religion is discussed. Yet he is not tolerant at all about the Christian students in our room.”
The Rebel’s Faith Goldy has sent similar freedom of information requests to school districts all across Canada as part of a series on Syrian migrant violence in Canadian schools. (RELATED: Report: Adult Refugees Enrolled In Canadian High School, Harassing Young Girls)