An elementary school teacher in California is under investigation after saying conservative students at the high school should "jump off a bridge" in a video posted to her Instagram account.
Bauer Speck Elementary School teacher Kristin Usilton was responding to a student waving a "F--- Joe Biden" flag during a Veteran's Day event. The student who brought the flag is now also under investigation.
"The Paso Robles Conservative club for the high school, you can go jump off a bridge. I’m going to post what they thought was a great show of support for the veterans, who I’m pretty sure would be absolutely offended by what they did on school campus," Usilton said in the video that appeared to have been filmed in a classroom. This is a teacher in Paso Robles, CA school district, telling Conservative Club kids to "jump off a bridge." We don't need this trash teaching our children. Retweet and share her ignorance. pic.twitter.com/fgfhoGhp5R
— Mayhem337 CMR 🇺🇸 (@ChadRickard) November 15, 2021
"And had the LGBTQ population done that or the Black or the Hispanic community members, we would have had our a– chewed out. Look at what they did today," the teacher continued in the video rant.
The teacher then showed a clip of the students who were gathered in the high school parking lot for their Veteran's Day event, one of whom had the anti-Biden flag, though most had military or American flags.
After receiving backlash, the teacher posted a follow up video saying that she did not mean that they should literally jump off a bridge.
"When I said ‘go jump off a bridge,’ I just meant go away, and I will not use that term again because of the incredible influx of messages I got about that. But if that’s what you focused on in that message, you’re kind of part of the problem," she said.
Usilton, who has worked for the Paso Robles school district for six years, has since deleted her Instagram account.
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Superintendent Curt Dubost said in a statement that investigations have been launched into both the student and the teacher.
"Last Wednesday, a student effort to honor Veterans Day was disrupted by a very poor choice to include a profane flag. This both detracted from the intended purpose of the demonstration and led to considerable disruption, including some postings and exchanges on social media that were completely inappropriate. The objectionable flag was up for a very limited amount of time; however, we in no way condone nor excuse this misguided action. Students will be appropriately disciplined in accordance with District policies," Dubost said.
"Later that day, a District employee posted comments on social media regarding this event which were inappropriate, and the District is responding accordingly through the Human Resource office. The District will make it clear to all employees that as an employee of PRJUSD, social media is not the appropriate venue for criticism of our students and families and that we must conduct ourselves in a professional manner. The community is entrusting their children to our schools and employees. With this stated, we want to emphasize that the District does not tolerate threats on our employees or students, nor do we condone cyber-bullying," the statement continued.
Dubost added that the district will be promoting more events that "promote tolerance and unity" and that "Veterans Day should be a day for patriotism and honoring service, not yet another politically divisive controversy."
Timcast has reached out to Dubost for comment and will update this article if one is provided.
