Quaker school suspends two teachers over Palestinian speaker

Two teachers at a Quaker school outside Philadelphia have been suspended over fallout from a Palestinian speaker’s invitation to a school club.

A lawyer representing Ariel Eure and Layla Helwa told the Philadelphia Inquirer the teachers were put on administrative leave Monday from Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood. The two supervised the school’s Peace and Equality in Palestine club.

The kerfuffle involves a Swarthmore College professor who’d been invited to speak last week at the club.Parents complained about Sa’ed Atshan’s involvement in a movement that advocates punitive measures against Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian territories. School leaders canceled his speech.

About 65 students, Eure and Helwa walked out of a weekly school meeting in protest. The administration said the teachers are on leave while a review is conducted.

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