Earlier this year, Austin [SODOM & GOMORRAH ON THE COLORODO]
Independent School District (Austin ISD) teacher Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy said she was pulled into a “check-in meeting” with school administration over a list of concerns. Most notably among them: “We’ve noticed an intentional attempt in teaching your students about their legal and constitutional rights.”
@soph4president you’d think I was teaching way out west but this is downtown Austin… #TeachingTexas
♬ original sound – Sophie Marie
TikTok: @soph4president / Via tiktok.com
In response to this, Sophia made a TikTok video documenting the administration’s notes on her teaching, as well as the events that would later play out — including her subsequently being placed on leave and terminated.
Over 3.2 million people have viewed Sophia’s now-viral video and tens of thousands followed her account in hopes of keeping up with this quickly turning story.
So what happened? Well, in line with Texas Senate Bill 1828, which mandates that all state schools hold a Holocaust Remembrance Week
to teach history surrounding genocide, Hitler’s dangerous rise to power, and concentration camps, Sophia conducted a lesson on Hitler’s use of education. “My students learned about recognizing propaganda and why Hitler went into schools to teach nazi ideology and nationalism,” she told BuzzFeed.
Students made parallels to signs of nationalism they were familiar with, including the US practice of having students recite the pledge of allegiance every morning in schools.
As a part of the lesson, students also learned about rights US citizens have today in comparison to restrictions placed on those in 1940s Germany. And this led some to practice protesting, Sophia explained. “The issue my admin had wasn’t with the lesson plan, but with my students’ decision to protest the pledge of allegiance by sitting and not reciting it with the rest of the school,” she said. “They have loved learning about their first amendment protection of freedom of speech and have been excited by protest movements all throughout the year.”
