Student complaining-religion

[totoromama]

I train adults in professional services and they do professional exams.
I'm really upset about something a student said today. I need to vent but don't think I can take it further.
I taught anything successful 4 day course with an exam.
The student in question got a really high score, she was so happy!
I leant over her to look at the score she was telling me and my pendant necklace came out of my top.
Her whole demeanor changed.
She stood up and exclaimed that if she had known I was x she wouldn't have done the course and she was going to complain.
I'm so upset.my religion has nothing to do with my job. I feel scared.
She'll complain and it'll effect me at work not for my performance.
I'm not sure my aibu.

Are you in the UK? If so Religion is a protected characteristic and you are not allowed to discriminate on the grounds of religion any more than you can on the grounds of sex.

When this student said this, surely you reported her to the head of the course for hate crime and then refused any further interaction with her?

She’s openly racist and needs to be kicked off the course.

I don’t believe expressing a preference for not associating with someone should be a crime, even if I also believe the student’s behaviour was disgusting
and upsetting.

We’ve already slid down too far down the slippery slope of chipping away at free speech in this country, as has been shown by the Graham Linehan case, and criminalising this student’s words, distasteful as they are, would be to go a stage further again. Free speech involves the freedom to offend.

@figcherryliving there already is rather different to moving there now, I would say. And I think that, given the anti-genocide protests in Israel itself recently, the country’s government may move to a position where it won’t be as easy to be openly Jewish in Israel if you’re also anti-Zionist.

I think she religiously discriminating against you

But check uniform policy too

Hate itself isn’t a “hate crime”. A hate crime is a crime that’s motivated by hatred of protected characteristic. I don’t see any crime committed here, so by definition, there can’t be a hate crime.

None of this means I believe expressing hate is acceptable, it’s just not, and shouldn’t be, a crime. Legislating expression of a feeling into a criminal offence would be a major undermining of free speech.

Report the student to the professional body.

Blatant discrimination on the part of the student! Her loss if she doesn’t take the opportunity to advance her studies because you wear a pendant…..what a silly woman she is.

It's not about wearing religious symbols, it's about racism and prejudice.

The student herself was wearing a hijab, which shows that she thinks there is nothing wrong with dressing in a way that makes your religion obvious. If it's OK for her to wear a hijab, it should be equally OK for you to wear a symbol of your religion, especially given that yours was far more discreet than hers.

I doubt she would have had the same reaction if she'd realised you were wearing a crucifix pendant rather than (I assume) a Star of David.

You have done nothing wrong. Write her off as a bigot and take the view that she doesn't deserve your help.

I would probably tell your manager what happened and say that you are angry and upset about how the student treated you when she found out you are Jewish.

I have Christian, Sikh, Muslim and Jewish colleagues who all wear outward signs of their faith, with the Sikhs, Muslims and Jews their names give away their faith anyway! This student of your’s needs to realise we have the freedom to wear articles of faith in this country and she can bloody do one! I would complain to your manager that you were subject to anti-Semitic comments and the student needs reporting too.

I’m so sorry you went through this op. I also knew it was going to be that you were Jewish. This kind of reaction is just a type of racism and I’m so sorry.

Also, on the subject of her complaining.

What exactly does she plan to complain about?

She can't complain about you wearing a visible religious symbol, because she wears a hijab herself, and because yours was so discreet that she only saw it accidentally, meaning that yours is generally not visible.

So even if it were against any rules for you to wear a visible religious symbol, which, in the UK, it isn't, that can't be the basis of her complaint.

In which case, what is she planning to complain about? Which of her rights does she think have been infringed here? She doesn't have a right not to come into contact with Jewish people. She doesn't have a right to know your religion if you choose not to share that information, any more than she has the right to know a doctor or nurse's religion before they're allowed to treat her.

If the basis of her complaint is that she wouldn't have done the course if she'd known that the teacher was Jewish, your manager needs to do is point out that in this country we have freedom of religion and belief (which is why she is allowed to practise hers), that it is illegal to discriminate against people on that basis (which is why they couldn't refuse to hire a Jewish teacher even if they wanted to, which they don't), and that they have a duty to protect you, their staff member, against antisemitism. Accordingly, they can no longer have her as a student.

I believe it too based on the Jewish schools and students near me getting so much abuse, even primary schools, that they have started a private bus service and told all the kids to hide their uniforms outside. (But even then people managed to break onto the bus and scream at the kids.) Honestly too many incidents in my area to name, from discrimination from bus drivers, to NHS nurses, to constant graffiti and posters and flags creating a hostile environment. And you're right some people might not be visible but some people's name/dress/appearance will make it obvious - it's like saying 'well you can't tell who's gay anyway so what's the problem.'

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the OP feels as a Jewish person she would be safer living in Israel than in GB or any other part of Europe. And your post clearly demonstrates why.

And it's Balfour not Balfor.

I knew from your OP you were Jewish. And it’s a disgraceful sign of the open racist/ religious hatred towards Jews in recent years, that it was obvious you were Jewish.

I wish people would wake up to the racist hatred Jews are facing. The hatred Jews are facing just for being Jewish is shocking and shameful.

It’s why I’m traveling to the March Against Anti-Semitism in London this Sunday.

All anti-racists should be on that March.

No.

There is no criminal offence here, so there can not be a Hate Crime

Really good advice but it’s the ‘Equality Act’ not Equalities Act.

Where exactly do you think Jewish people should live where they can be free from this kind of discrimination?

If you don't want Jewish people to move to Israel then quite frankly it is on YOU (and the rest of us) to make them safe and welcome in the rest of the western world.

Freedom of Speech is precisely what gives us the right to insult others.

Probably more accurate to say that there is no right to not be offended or insulted.

Provided anything you say doesn't cross over into verbal assault territory, become enough of a pattern that it would constitue harassment, or constitute something illegal itself (incitement and so on), then insult away, you are not breaking any laws.

Nb, I'm Jewish and I would ask to please not to assume that a Muslim person is most likely to be making such a comment.

I read it and immediately knew you were Jewish. I'm so so sorry, this sucks.

That comes across as though you think Muslims are the problem?

This can almost certainly be classified as a hate incident.

It is not a Hate Crime though, which is what the original contention was.