NC teacher suspended over classroom religious conflict

Apex, USA - A middle-school teacher was suspended after she posted an angry entry on her Facebook page saying she was the target of a "hate crime" by Christian students.

Melissa Hussain, an eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School, was suspended with pay while investigators reviewed her case.

Hussain wrote that it was a "hate crime" that students anonymously left a Bible on her desk, and she said she "was able to shame her kids" over the incident.

Hussain's Facebook page does not mention her religious affiliation and she did not respond to phone and e-mail messages.

Greg Thomas, spokesman for the Wake County schools, said parents objected to comments on Hussain's social-networking site about her conflict with Christian students.

Parents said classroom tensions escalated after a student put a postcard of Jesus on Hussain's desk that she threw in the trash.

Hussain, a 2004 Florida State University graduate, has been a Wake County teacher since 2006.