Teacher Gives ‘Most Likely to Become a Terrorist’ Award to 13-Year-Old Girl

One day after a terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, a Texas teacher decided to issue a mock award about terrorism.

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Seventh grade honor student Lizeth Villanueva seemingly has a better understanding of the gravity of terrorism and the appropriate subject matter to joke about with teenagers than her teacher, after a Channelview Independent School District instructor made the tone-deaf mistake of giving Villanueva an award for being the "most likely to become a terrorist."

“[Being] a terrorist is a really big thing,” Villanueva told Houston NBC affiliate KPRC. “Just what happened two or three days ago with Arianna Grande and her concert, and they’re joking around with this. That’s not something to joke around with.”

CISD confirmed the teacher is being internally disciplined after what the district deemed to be a “poor attempt to poke fun” at students that “wasn’t well thought out.” According to Villanueva, the teacher merely laughed as she signed the award. Other certificates issued during the mock awards ceremony reportedly included “most likely to cry for every little thing” and “most likely to become homeless.” The choice to issue such awards when there is heightened sensitivity toward bullying in schools was a particularly curious one that found the Channelview Independent School District issuing a formal, written apology.

“The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom,” the statement read, in part. “Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district’s vision, mission and educational goals for our students.

“The teachers involved in this matter have been disciplined according to district policy and the incident is still under investigation.”

Villanueva said multiple classes were brought together for the ceremony, and other teachers present merely laughed instead of intervening. 

The mock award fiasco is the latest in a series of public relations nightmares for Texas’ independent school districts. In April, Roanoke, Texas teacher Katherine Ruth Harper was arrested and placed on administrative leave for an alleged improper relationship with one of her students.

Many sounded off on the incident and went in accordingly on the teachers involved.

So some adults thought this would be light-hearted and funny. I'm so baffled at the thought processes of some people. https://t.co/T3o8a8Mvln
Listen, teachers. I know it's the end of the year and we're all a little loopy, but definitely DON'T do this https://t.co/TFKe7ntpP3
How, in ANY WAY, could ANYONE deem this "lighthearted" and "an attempt to poke fun"??!! https://t.co/Tjs2zedKVm
And these are the so called educators teaching our children. Incidents like these are why people say "there's no hope for the future" https://t.co/4SgIOX72Nr
Teachers who do this: Please don't be teachers. You are horrible. https://t.co/VcjlYWE6lD

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