A California teacher who is also a city councilman was allegedly caught on video disparaging members of the military, ranting, “We got a bunch of dumbs***s over there. Think about the people you know who are over there. They’re your freaking stupid Uncle Louie or whatever. They’re dumbs***s. They’re not high level bankers; they’re not academic people; they’re not intellectual people. They’re the freaking lowest of our low.”
Gregory Salcido, 49, a Pico Rivera Councilman and teacher at El Rancho High School, was caught on three videos mocking the military as well as criticizing a student who wore a sweatshirt with a Marines logo. On Saturday, El Rancho Unified School District officials confirmed that the person speaking in the video was Salcido and the incidents happened on school grounds.
District Superintendent Karling Aguilera-Fort acknowledged to the Orange County Register, “We acknowledge it is his voice based on the research of the incident so far and knowing it came from one of our classrooms.”
The post on Facebook with the three videos went viral. The 17-year-old senior who took the videos, whose father and two uncles are Marine veterans who fought in Afghanistan, Desert Storm and Vietnam, said, “It was so disrespectful to my dad and my uncles and all veterans and those still in the military.” He said he wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal from those who liked Salcido, but did say he made the recording on January 19 during a U.S. history class.
The O.C. Register reported that Salcido’s past was also sketchy:
In May 2012, he was put on paid administrative leave after the Sheriff’s Department received a complaint that he struck a student. In July 2010, a parent complained that Salcido had threatened his daughter, made inappropriate comments to his summer school class about race and insulted other students and parents, which Salcido denied.