A teacher in the northeast province of Salcedo has been fired for coming to school wearing a shirt displaying a picture of terrorist Osama Bin Laden. El Siglo reports the shirt also had the words "Yo apoyo a Bin Laden" (I support Bin Laden). The teacher, identified as José Salvador Cruz, denied the accusations and asked for the support of his union which subsequently called for a two-day teachers strike in Salcedo schools while threatening protests in other neighboring provinces. Cruz said he is a "victim of political persecution by the authorities." Meanwhile, Education Minister Milagros Ortiz Bosch is standing by the decision to fire Cruz. She said in El Caribe newspaper, "I would only reconsider if he apologized to the Dominican people and to the families of the dead and disappeared in the collapsed towers in New York." She said Dominican schools have an obligation to promote and maintain a culture of peace.
