German Swiss International School is in considering removing the language that requires elected board directors need to be fluent in German. The language rule has existed for 15 years.
The is a hearing happening this week. According to an article last year, there are parents that were given the title as pending director, as they were not fluent in German. It mentioned that only who is fluent in German, as for both speaking and writing would qualify for the election. The chairman of German Swiss International School considers the article discriminatory and currently on legal action on solving this problem. He also mentioned, the school has filed the complaint to EOC, the school was on the mediation process. The school was trying to resolve the problem.
German Swiss International School has the German language requirement to maintain the German characteristic in the school. However, this is not the right way to use the character as control or as discrimination. It said directors of both German-speaking and non-German speaking received verbal and written threats to keep the article. Some members even if they can speak German, but they get threats perhaps as they do not have German names or look German. This still is right to threaten them. The school has given this matter to the lawyer and wants to bring peace back to school.
EOC has
not confirmed whether they had received the complaint or not, but it did state
that to treat someone base on language can discriminate, which is racial
harassment under the law.
Besides, there is also another controversy topic said to regard the Swiss government might stop the involvement of German-Swiss International School and threaten the school to change its English and German name. The school knows the Swiss government is looking into the problem, to see what is going on, as for the school it says it will keep its original name.