Israeli school teachers in student email error

By JEFFREY HELLER
Published on 12/03/2013 00:00

STUDENTS at an Israeli high school have been in uproar after a teacher mistakenly sent them an internal email that spelled out what faculty members really thought about them.

“Not too bright”, “liar”, “tactless”, “big baby”, “anti-social”, “has a thing for boys” and “sicko” were some of the descriptions on an Excel spreadsheet that landed in students’ email inboxes yesterday.

Protesting outside the Yitzhak Rabin High School in the town of Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv, students pinned some of those descriptions on their shirts. They also demanded an apology, which the headteacher made.

The comments are unacceptable and have no place in the education system, the ministry of education said in a statement yesterday. It added that it had begun an “in-depth and thorough investigation” and that representatives had held talks with teachers at the school.

The list, which also contained praise for a number of students, was compiled by teachers as a guide to potential misbehaviour by the teenagers due to take part in a school visit to Holocaust sites in Poland, a trip that has become a rite of passage for many Israeli youngsters.

One of the teachers inadvertently copied the list to students who signed up for the trip, the school said.