Israeli teacher shows fifth-grade class October 7 horror film, drawing rebuke

The parents of the students were outraged, some of whom said their children now suffer from nightmares and anxiety due to the film.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF FEBRUARY 13, 2025 20:06

Homes are destroyed, following the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel November 2, 2023 (photo credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)

An elementary school teacher in Kochav Yair showed a class of fifth graders on Wednesday a video which documented the October 7 Hamas attacks, Walla reported.

The video, produced by Magen David Adom, shows uncensored footage of the massacre, including people who were shot and killed in vehicles, severed limbs, and people screaming for help. After turning the video on, the teacher walked out of the room and left the students to watch it alone.

The parents of the students were outraged, some of whom said their children now suffer from nightmares and anxiety due to the film.

"How dare they do such a thing to our children?" One of the student's fathers told Walla. "Parents are saying that their children aren't sleeping at night ebcause of the many nightmares. We tried to shelter them from these things throughout the war, and then a teacher comes along and showers them with horrors? Now they need psychological therapy to overcome this."

Other parents said that the children left the classroom crying. "Why did they have to be exposed to something like that?" One of the mothers said. "They were left traumatized, they didn't know how to deal with what they saw. It's an experience that children of this age shouldn't go through."

The destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, October 30, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

School taking swift actions

The school staff took swift action after finding out about the incident and provided the students with emotional and mental support, in collaboration with the local education department.

The educational psychological service team was brought in on Thursday to help the children and their parents cope with the troubling experience.

The school fired the teacher immediately and demanded that the contract with the company the teacher was hired from to be broken.

"This is a serious incident that occurred during an additional curriculum class by an external teacher, who is not employed by the Ministry of Education," the Ministry of Education said, addressing the situation. "Upon learning of the incident, her work at the school was immediately terminated."