Photo of Benjamin Reese , a school teacher who was arrested after allegedly saying he would ‘cut’ student’s ‘head off’ after she told him she was offended by his Israeli flag. Benjamin Reese’s bond was set at $2,500 for the terroristic threat charge and $5,000 for the charge of cruelty to children. Reese has since bonded out.
A school teacher in the US state of Georgia was arrested after allegedly threatening to behead a student who expressed taking offense over his Israeli flag, according to authorities.
Benjamin Reese’s arrest at the middle school named after the town of Warner Robins occurred on after a student approached and told him she was offended by the Israeli flag hanging in his classroom, the local news station WMAZ reported, citing a police account of the case.
Reese, a seventh-grade social studies teacher, allegedly replied that he was a Jew and had relatives who lived in Israel. The student said “Israelis killing Palestinians” made the flag offensive, which prompted Reese to accuse her of being antisemitic.
WMAZ reported that several different witnesses then heard Reese, 51, say he would “kick [the] student’s fucking ass, slit her goddamn throat … drag her ass outside and cut her head off”.
One faculty member alleged to have heard Reese say: “You don’t make an antisemitic comment like that to a Jew.” The student “responded negatively to Reese but was not yelling”, that witness said.
According to the police account reviewed by WMAZ, that witness described seeing Reese return to his classroom while he swore loudly and said he “should not be spoken to like that because he is a Jew”.
“I will drag her ass into the parking lot, slit her fucking throat and kill her,” Reese allegedly said, as the police account told it.
Reese’s alleged tirade happened about 3.30pm, which is after many US schools dismiss classes for the day. But teachers, staff member and students who were there for after-school tutoring or disciplinary detention were there, and a local sheriff’s office deputy on duty at the campus interviewed them, WMAZ said.
The deputy at Warner Robins middle school found security video which showed Reese yelling down a hallway as he walked to his classroom, but it had no audio. Reese, when approached by the deputy, allegedly defended himself by asserting that he had not said anything racist, among other things, WMAZ reported.
The teacher was accused of kicking his classroom’s door stopper “in an aggressive manner” as the deputy led him out. Reese then invoked his constitutional right to remain silent, and he was booked a day later on counts of cruelty to a child and making a terroristic threat.
Reese subsequently posted a $7,500 bond while awaiting the resolution of the case, according to the police account reported on by WMAZ.
Local school district officials issued a statement saying Reese had not gone back to the Warner Robins campus since the incident on 7 December but didn’t elaborate on his employment status, citing a policy against discussing personnel matters.
“If there is a violation or accusation of a violation, we investigate and respond appropriately,” said the district’s statement, which was also obtained by WMAZ. “Safety and the wellbeing of our students and staff is our number one priority.”
Attempts to contact Reese weren’t immediately successful.
Hamas’s 7 October attacks in Israel – and the subsequent military campaign in Gaza – have ignited political and religious tensions across the US which has seen reported spikes in both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The Guardian / Ya Libnan
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