OTTAWA -- Syrian refugees at a New Brunswick high school bullied young students, ignored teachers, and harassed a Jewish student, educators wrote this spring in a series of e-mail messages.
One e-mail even detailed how a student enthusiastically shared his love for rocket-propelled grenades.
"During a class activity ... talking about hobbies or interests, (an Arabic-speaking student) stated that he liked RPGs and made loud noises and gestures," Chantal Lafargue, a teacher at Fredericton High School, wrote in March.
But David McTimoney, the superintendent of the Anglophone West School District, said those comments "stems from a discussion about experiences in Syria though an open, guidance-type conversation."
And McTimoney downplayed other e-mail messages from teachers at the high school, a dozen or so which were published this week by the news site
TheRebel.Media.
They were part of a package of 2,700 pages of documents obtained through an access-to-information request.
McTimoney, in a statement Thursday, said the selected e-mails "painted an inaccurate picture," and "were taken completely out of context and sensationalized."
Sun Media filed a request this week for a copy of the same 2,700 pages, not all of which have yet been published.
The school, which has about 1,900 students, is on its summer break and none of the teachers could be reached Thursday.
Fredericton has received about 450 Syrian refugees since Nov. 4.
Of those, 29 attended the high school primarily to learn English.
One memo noted that many of these Syrians had not been in a school environment for years and that they needed special counselling as they were coming from a war zone where rape, murder, and other violent acts were common.
A school vice-principal, Robyn Allaby, wrote to a colleague on March 3: "It would appear that the honeymoon is over with a few of the Syrian men -- the 19 & 20 year olds. Things have been brewing for a few weeks now -- the older males challenging (two other teachers) particularly when it comes to the girls in the class and also bullying others in the class. There was an incident today and things also got physical with a few students."
After ISIS terrorists killed 32 people in Belgium on March 22, Lafargue e-mailed several teachers and administrators that "in our wing for students of a certain culture .. there is a lot of energy and excitement ... we should be mindful of today."
The correspondence did not elaborate whether the students were for or against the attacks.
In another e-mail, a teacher details how an older Syrian student bullied a younger Jewish student. "Obviously this is a cultural and political scenario that runs deep and while I like to think we can transcend it all in our classrooms, so far it doesn't look good," teacher Neil Brewer wrote on March 3 to several colleagues.
"It can be very problematic and intimidating to have teenagers and young adults from many different countries in the same class," school vice principal Robyn Allaby wrote on March 22 regarding the school's "English as an Additional Language" class, where students range in age from 15-20. "Just last week we had an incident where 19- and 20-year-olds were making racist comments to young students and intimidating them. We had to bring in a translator for a full day to help us smooth the waters and get back on track."
In other e-mails, teachers tried to figure out how to accommodate requests for Muslim prayer practices during school hours which require, among other things, that men and women be separate during prayer.
McTimoney confirmed a prayer room had been created within the school and said it was a symbol of the school's commitment "to recognize and value the diversity among those that we serve."
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