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His mouth felt dry, rough. His lips were like those pages from those old books, ever so slightly stuck together. As his eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room and his awareness over his body returned, together with all of its soreness and numbing pain, he sighed. His still weak from slumber hands moved up to his face to clean his burning eyes from the crumbling rheum that had collected in them overnight.

Today was not going to be that enjoyable, he had gathered that much.

He lay there, in his bed, fully expecting *him* to come in any minute with the breakfast that had been prepared just for himself. He hoped that he would bring him water as well this time around. He slowly sat up, almost feeling strange without the peaking sunlight that used to sneak into his old room through those maroon curtains, the ones that used to belong to his father. As he felt a pain shoot through his legs, he winced and closed his eyes, his jaw tensing up and his hands digging into his bedding.

And so he remembered his dream.

He was in the garden of his father’s mansion, on a warm spring evening, watching the sky slowly blend away into shades of pink and orange, like watercolour that had not yet dried on the paper. He walked around what seemed like an endless labyrinth of white chrysanthemums, stopping at one that he found particularly perfect. He placed both of his hands under the blossom and admired its beauty, counting its many petals one by one. He picked it off, caring more about witnessing its beauty than of its life. He walked for what seemed like an eternity, but he didn’t get tired. He was free, yet in a labyrinth. Lost, but sincerely satisfied. And that’s when he woke up.

As much as he hated to admit it, he always felt powerless. He always felt vulnerable. He had his freedom taken away before he even had the chance to spread his wings out and fly away. He moved the blanket away from him and gently placed his hands on the now long gone scars that tainted his thighs.

Oh, what he would give to have them back.

A teacher at a secondary school in Scotland has been suspended after making “inappropriate comments” during a lesson about the royal family, in the latest case of anti-republican repression following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

On Tuesday, North Lanarkshire Council suspended the teacher – who has taught in the area for 22 years – from Clyde Valley High School.

After being informed of his suspension, the teacher was escorted off of the premises – due, he was told, to concerns for his safety. He requested anonymity for the same reason.

A spokesperson for the council said: “We do not comment on individual employee matters.”

‘Inappropriate comments.’

In a letter to the teacher, Janie O’Neill, head of the council’s education and families team, said the reason for his suspension was a “parental complaint […] alleging that you made inappropriate comments whilst teaching a class about the royal family […] [and that] you mocked pupils in relation to this.”

Though O’Neill does not specify these “inappropriate comments” in her letter, the teacher believes she is referring to an incident that occurred on Thursday, during a modern studies class with his third-year (year 9) students.

Speaking to Novara Media, the teacher recalls asking his class: “Have you noticed the media coverage about the royal family? And have any of you ever thought that it’s a bit odd that you don’t hear any dissenting voices, everybody’s all pushing the same narrative? You know, you don’t hear anybody saying, ‘Well is this maybe a time to think about moving away from a royal family?’”

He says that while most of his students seemed to agree with his comments, one took umbrage: “This one girl flew at me and said, ‘You must be a Catholic’ […] [and] ‘You must respect the Queen’”.

The teacher says he replied: “You know, that’s really funny. That’s how my mum responds when I raise this issue with her.” He recounts that the other students laughed, while the girl “looked furious” and “stormed off”.

When he arrived at work five days later, the teacher was summoned to a meeting with Jacqueline Burton, education and families manager at North Lanarkshire Council, who notified him he was being suspended pending an investigation.

“I couldn’t believe it was happening to me, but at the same time, I wasn’t that surprised,” says the teacher, who is being supported by his union, the Educational Institute of Scotland. “The warning signs have been there for years.”

‘If you hate the royal family, clap your hands.’

While the Queen’s death has reignited tensions between republicans and monarchists across the UK, in Scotland the issue is particularly fraught, enmeshed as it is with sectarianism.

Πηγή – περισσότερα: https://novaramedia.com/2022/09/21/a-teacher-was-suspended-for-encouraging-students-to-question-the-monarchy/