"Your revealing clothing turns me on": The horrific quotes of the physics teacher
A middle school physics teacher in central Israel was fired and banned from the education system for five years following his conviction for inappropriate conduct. The teacher made sexually explicit remarks to students, citing "laws of nature" to justify his behavior. The students' mothers agreed to a plea bargain to spare their daughters from testifying in court.
The Disciplinary Tribunal for Civil Servants in Jerusalem recently sentenced a middle school physics teacher in central Israel to immediate dismissal, a five-year ban from state service and the Ministry of Education, and a severe reprimand. The teacher was convicted, based on his own admission, of conduct unbecoming of his position and actions that harmed the discipline of state service.
The tribunal adopted a plea bargain between the Civil Service Commission and the teacher, which included immediate dismissal with severance pay and 5,000 shekels in compensation for each of the two complainants. The indictment described a pattern of discourse that deviated significantly from accepted educational norms.
Classroom incidents
Among other things, the teacher reportedly presented charts on sexual frequency, discussed his young son watching pornography, and offered "tips" for relationships that included "good sex." When a student mentioned working as a babysitter, he responded, "I thought of something else."
The primary incident occurred on May 27, 2024, during a ninth-grade physics lesson. The teacher made a series of graphic statements regarding sexuality and gender, including a story about a man in a labor camp consuming bull sperm and another about a woman who considered a man a "loser" for not attempting to sleep with her. Addressing a student, he remarked, "If you starve yourself for at least a week, you will understand what sex is for me."
"Laws of nature" and harassment
The teacher claimed that students' revealing clothing "turned him on" and that he sometimes had to leave the classroom to calm down. He further asserted that, according to the "laws of nature," women have no rights and that men are supposed to "catch and rape" women on the street. When a student asked if it was legitimate for a man to chase her, he replied that, by nature, he was supposed to catch and rape her.
Tribunal ruling
The tribunal emphasized that while gender and sexuality can be topics of legitimate educational work, this case "drifted into too intimate a discourse," making the classroom environment "embarrassing, unsettling, and offensive." The tribunal determined that an educator must maintain boundaries between an adult in authority and their students.
Defense counsel presented letters of recommendation from colleagues and principals, describing the teacher as dedicated and brilliant. The teacher expressed remorse, claiming he intended to lead an open discussion but failed to stop the discourse in time. The students' mothers agreed to the settlement "with a heavy heart," primarily to prevent their daughters from having to testify.
