Verbally abusive WhatsApp messages between a teacher and a students' aide about two students in Beersheba were revealed by Maariv on Wednesday.
In the messages, the aide and the teacher talked about the two students, with the teacher saying that she couldn't stand them and calling them r*tarded and wretched.
In one exchange, the aide is seen asking the teacher if she can take a break. A few minutes later, the teacher messages the aide that "the r****d has arrived," allegedly referring to one of the students.
The aide responds that the student causes problems, to which the teacher responds with "smelly girl" and asks what she did.
In another exchange, the teacher tells the aide that she told the student "face to face that she doesn't understand anything" and that "she's a brick."
She later called the girl "unbearable" and added that the following day she intended to "lay into her".
Targeted student suffers from PTSD
"I want to know that she isn't teaching anymore, my daughter needs to be safe."
Ilana
The student's mother Ilana told N12 that the messages made their way to her through another student's mother who got them from the aide
"When I saw the messages, I couldn't breathe," she told Maariv. "How can you talk like that about my daughter? I'm scared that my daughter will find out what happened. I'm not willing to have that teacher keep teaching her. I want to know that she isn't teaching anymore, my daughter needs to be safe."
Ilana added that her daughter is 12 years old and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that the teacher knew this and took advantage of it.
"My daughter's aide is no less to blame for cooperating with the teacher," she said. "She needs to be punished."
Ilana later told N12 that she had no choice but to tell her daughter the truth after the messages made it into the class WhatsApp group.
The girl told N12 that she had experienced issues with the same teacher in the past. On one occasion, she said, she had felt that she needed to speak to her mother which she has special permission to do whenever she needs because of her PTSD.
"She dragged it out, and didn't let me call my mother until the end of the day," she said.
Ilana met with the school's management who didn't know what to say. She had originally wanted the teacher to be fired, but she settled for suspension.
"The ministry looks severely on the teacher's words which are opposed to the values upon which the Education Ministry is built," said the ministry in a statement. "The teacher will be summoned to a hearing."