High school teacher fired after investigation into ‘racist’ tweets

A Richmond Hill teacher has been fired following a 10-week investigation into “racist” comments critical of Islam that he posted online.
Michael Marshall was dismissed following a meeting of the York Region District School Board, said board spokesperson LicinioMiguelo.
The investigation began after students at Richmond Green Secondary School discovered a Twitter account, @firstatheist, which featured a profile picture of Marshall and numerous tweets mentioning students’ names.
The @firstatheist account tweeted more than 4,500 times, including messages that said:
“I get sad when girls I teach decide to wear the hijab. I feel like a failure,” or “Hijabs make me sad.”, or “Kinda have this perverse urge to wear a hijab for a day and dance in the street.”
Asgari, 17, who was taught by Marshall, said she cannot recall a time Marshall was openly racist, but said “he told me before he has other accounts, and I remember him saying he argues with Muslim issues on Twitter.
“They were little remarks, and I always thought he was joking because I looked up to him as a teacher.”