8th-Grader Records Teacher's Eyebrow-Raising Comments

Calif. middle school teacher went on anti-vax political rant, told students Trump was still president
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 10, 2021 7:16 AM CST
8th-Grader Records Teacher's Eyebrow-Raising Comments
Anacapa Middle School, in Ventura, Calif.   (Google Maps)

Is there something in the water in California? Last week, a high school teacher in the northern part of the state took some heat after airing his apparent political views via a class quiz. Now, a middle school history teacher in a town further south is making headlines for her own politically tinged comments, with at least one parent claiming the school isn't taking enough action against her. Per CBS Los Angeles, Sarah Silikula's son, who's in the eighth grade at Anacapa Middle School in Ventura, emerged from school upset on Oct. 18, climbed in the car, and announced to his father, "Did you know Trump's still president?"

The boy also proclaimed he was never getting vaccines of any kind ever again—and he had a seven-minute recording of his teacher on his smartphone to explain why. In the recording, the teacher can be heard going on a political rant that not only included anti-vaccination remarks, but also comments on the 2020 presidential election, the political justice system, and Hunter Biden's laptop, claiming the president's son had child porn on his computer and had "sexual intercourse with his own niece." Among the teacher's other eyebrow-raising quotes: "People need to wake up and see the government has way too much power right now."

The Ventura County Star reports the teacher is no longer teaching that history class, or even located at the middle school campus, after an investigation by the Ventura Unified School District, though it's not clear if she still has a job with the district, which says it's following a disciplinary procedure agreed to with the teachers union. Superintendent Roger Rice says in a statement to the Washington Post that the district "does not condone the non-instructionally-related discussion that occurred in the classroom," while a spokesperson for the district notes the teacher in question has "expressed deep remorse for what occurred."

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Silikula, however, isn't sure the appropriate actions have been taken, noting that her son now thinks she and his dad lied to him, choosing to believe the teacher's narrative over theirs. "He's damaged. He's hurt. He's scared," she tells CBS. "He doesn't trust his parents now." Silikula also wants assurances that something like this will never happen again in the classroom. "I trusted her to teach him the facts about history and she went off on this rant like a preacher on a pulpit," she says. "Don't impose [your political beliefs] on my child who I trusted in your care." (More California stories.)

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