Austrian teacher denigrates foreign children

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) - Accusations of insulting and denigrating foreign children have been leveled against a German language teacher at a Viennese school, Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported Friday.

According to the report, in the capital Vienna the teacher insulted students from Syria, Ukraine, and Türkiye with statements such as "You can't do anything," "You can go back to Turkey, too!" and also "Are you paying for school? Is your mom paying for the apartment? Who pays? I ... pay everything ... and everyone else who has a job. Do the mom and dad have a job? Probably not!"

Also according to ORF, the teacher said that she wanted to see one of the students "get a job here in Austria and not that I have to pay for you."

"This is unbelievable that something like this is possible in an Austrian school," Cornelius Granig, head of the Austrian group Ukraine Aid, told the broadcaster.

Vienna Education Director Heinrich Himmer confirmed the teacher's offensive statements to ORF. "This is very insulting behavior and a misjudgment of the colleague. We will work on that together with her," he said.

He added: "We don't ask ourselves in schools where someone comes from and what someone is, but for us the same standards are to be set for everyone."

Education is about passing on knowledge and potential opportunities, not questioning what someone earns or where someone lives, he said.

According to the report, the situation will be discussed next week between the education directorate, the teacher, and the students.