Teachers who made racist comments about Black students will not be fired

A group of teachers who made racist and derogatory remarks about Black students in a WhatsApp chat will not be removed from their roles this year, the Education Ministry says.

The teachers, from a high school in Netivot, were instead handed unspecified “significant reprimands” after expressing remorse for comments made in the group chat. The ministry said their suitability for roles in the school would be re-examined ahead of the next academic year.

The teachers, who had been chaperoning an annual school trip, were found earlier this month to have opened a chat group called “Annual trip Blacks,” in which they made fun of students of Ethiopian heritage, including racist comments.