Report: Gwinnett Teacher Asks Muslim Student If She Has A Bomb

A Gwinnett County middle-school teacher asked a 10-year-old Muslim student whether she was carrying a bomb, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting.

Abdirazik Aden, a native of Somalia, told the paper his daughter was going to class at Shiloh Middle School on Monday when a teacher stopped her and asked what she had in her backpack.

When the girl replied that she had books in it, the teacher asked if she had a bomb, he said.

He said his daughter was upset and called him to tell him about the incident. When he went to the school, he says, an assistant principal told him that it was a mistake.

“I was upset,” said Aden, who lives in Snellville. “I was going to take my daughter out (of the school).

“We are from Africa, we are Muslims, we live in America,” he told the AJC. “I didn’t teach my children to hate people or to think they are better than other people. I don’t want nobody to treat them like that.”

Aden lives in Snellville and works as a truck driver and grocery store owner, according to the paper.

A spokeswoman for Gwinnett County schools, Sloan Roach, confirmed Friday that the incident took place.

She said an investigation by the school’s principal revealed that the teacher made the comment while trying to get students to put away their backpacks quickly.

The principal has apologized to the Aden family, Roach said.

As the AJC notes, the incident comes at a time when there has been heightened anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of a San Bernandino, California, shooting that left 14 people dead. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he’d support a temporary ban all all Muslim immigration into the country.