Reflections on the Death of a Teacher: Riad Hamad

One Sunday night, my daughter told me that she had learned from Facebook that one of her former teachers had been found in Lady Bird Lake with his hands tied with duct tape. While I initially questioned whether this was a cruel internet hoax, the newspaper confirmed the story the next day. That was the beginning of a strange story which has attracted national attention.

Riad Hamad taught technology at Small Middle School in Austin which both of my daughters have attended. My older daughter remembers him as a wacky teacher who was also a little bit weird. My younger daughter, who did not have him as a teacher, noted the emotion in her principal's voice as she told the school community about his death. She also noticed her teachers wearing dove pins which were a gift from Mr. Hamad. My childrens' experience reflected the tragic loss of a valued educator.

There is another side to the story and this is the one which attracted much of the attention. Mr. Hamad was an advocate for Palestinian causes and operated the Palestinian Children's Welfare Fund. Mr. Hamad was a prolific litigator, filing at least seven pro se lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Austin, all of which were decided against him. In his latest suit, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks awarded sanctions against him for pursuing a frivolous lawsuit. In February, federal authorities executed a search warrant on Mr. Hamad. They seized computers and other records. According to the affidavit for the search warrant, Mr. Hamad could not account for over $100,000 of funds raised for the charity and had not filed tax returns for the years 2000-2006.

Mr. Hamad's body was found in Lady Bird Lake with duct tape over his eyes and his hands and legs bound. However, a security video apparently showed him leaving his car which was parked near the lake by himself. The Austin Police Department came to the preliminary conclusion that the death was a suicide.

What sense can we make out of all this contradictory information? This is simply not an event which can be looked at through an either-or lense. From all accounts, Mr. Hamad was a devoted teacher and father. He was also a gadfly who filled the federal courts with his unsuccessful lawsuits but did not file federal tax returns. Neither one of these facts negates the other. Both can be simultaneously true. It is a sad contradiction that Mr. Hamad was both a valued government employee as a school teacher and someone whose fear of federal law enforcement officials may have driven him to take his own life.

More difficult to evaluate is his work on behalf of Palestinian charities. His friends and colleagues claim that he was devoted to peace and cared deeply about Palestinian children living in dire conditions. His on-line antagonists contended that the charity that he was associated with funneled money to terrorists. Support for terrorists and support for children seem inconsistent to me. However, we should not be blind to the fact that the Palestinian children who Mr. Hamad cared about are often on the receiving end of injustice (whether it be from stray Israeli bullets, inter-Palestinian fighting or terrorists who want to train them to be suicide bombers). The best remembrance that we can offer for Mr. Hamad's troubled life is to recognize that his concerns for Palestinian children were legitimate.