A chemistry teacher in Lehi, Utah, was placed on administrative leave after she lectured her class on her hatred for Donald Trump and the novel coronavirus.
A student in Alpine School District’s Lehi High School recorded their teacher’s casual conversation-turned-rant in a viral video. In the video, she complains about students who refuse to get vaccinated and can be heard claiming that the virus would “end in five seconds” if people got inoculated.
“We’ll just keep getting variants over and over and over until people get vaccinated. It’s never going to end,” the teacher said. “It could end in five seconds if people would get vaccinated.”
The teacher proceeded to express her hatred for Donald Trump and taunted the students to tell administrators about her rant. One student can be heard asking if she’s a liberal, while another piped in, “This is a chemistry class!”
“I hate Donald Trump. I’m gonna say it. I don’t care what y’all think. Trump sucks,” the teacher said. “He is a sexual predator, he is a literal moron. Go tattle on me to the freakin’ admins, they don’t give a crap.”
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She looped back to her feelings about being in a classroom learning environment with unvaccinated students. She called the students “rude” for coming to her class unvaccinated and asked if they, or their parents, listen to Fox News. She told them to “turn off the Fox News.”
“Turn off the Fox News. Do your parents listen to Fox News? This is my classroom and if you guys are going to put me at risk you’re going to hear about it,” she said. “Because I have to be here. I don’t have to be happy about the fact that there’s kids coming in here, with their variants that could possibly get me or my family sick. That’s rude. And I’m not going to pretend like it’s not. So don’t ask me to.”
Within her four-minute-long rant, which included students informally peppering her with questions, the teacher encouraged students to ignore their parents because the high schoolers are, according to this teacher, smarter than their parents.
“Most of y’alls parents are dumber than you. I’m going to say that out loud.” “My parents are freaking dumb,” she continued. “Okay, and the minute I figured that out, the world opens up. You don’t have to do everything your parents say. And you don’t have to believe everything your parents believe. Because most likely, you’re smarter than them.”
Near the end of her rant, the teacher told students to remain silent about their conservative beliefs in the classroom. She told students that they must accept climate change and not be a “homophobe” if they do not wish to be made fun of by the teacher.
“You can believe what you want to believe, but keep it quiet in here because I’m probably going to make fun of you. I’ll just say this, here are the topics that you’ll probably want to avoid in this class. Politics, which you went into — you asked me,” she said.
“If you don’t believe in climate change, get the hell out … That’s pathetic that you think that. You’re the problem with the world. Okay?”
“If you’re a homophobe, get out. Because I’m the [Gay Straight Alliance] faculty advisor. I love gay people, all the LGBTQIA plus mother f*****s. If you don’t like it. Get out,” the teacher continued. “If I hear you say a d**n word against any of them, I will open a can, and I will make your life a living h**l. And they know it. If you give shiz to any LGBTQ kid in the school, I will hear about it, and you will be in trouble.”
Alpine School District issued a statement condemning the teacher’s behavior and announcing that she had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
“We became aware late this afternoon of an incident that took place in one of our high school classrooms. An immediate investigation ensued. The employee has been put on administrative leave pending a thorough investigation,” the school district said. “This behavior is inappropriate, not reflective of the professional conduct and decorum we expect of our teachers, and will not be tolerated.”
Within 24 hours, the district updated its statement to reflect that the teacher is no longer an employee at the school. It’s unclear whether the teacher was fired or resigned.
“Although the details of a personnel investigation are confidential, the teacher involved is no longer an employee of Alpine School District,” the district said.