ICYMI: Support For Levittown Teacher After Capitol Riot Post

LEVITTOWN, NY — Some in the community are defending a Division Avenue High School teacher who is being investigated for an anti-police Facebook post that the schools superintendent called "offensive" and "hostile."

In the post, the male teacher denounced a photo of a Capitol Police officer with someone inside the U.S. Capitol Building when it was stormed Jan. 6.

The post read, "Cop taking a selfie with a terrorist. F--- your Thin Blue Line. F--- your Blue Lives. F--- every single one of you back to elementary school who voted for him. I don't give a flying f--- that you know a good cop."

The officer in the widely circulated photo was suspended, according to the Daily Mail. The post was later deleted. Attempts to reach the teacher have not been successful.

On Jan. 7, Levittown Public Schools Superintendent Tonie McDonald announced an investigation into the teacher's post, calling it "offensive" and "hostile." Meanwhile, an online petition supporting the teacher has garnered more than 3,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
Longtime Levittown resident Scott Diamond said he backs the teacher's post and supports the teacher's freedom of speech.

"The vast majority of people are outraged at what happened in D.C.," Diamond said.

Diamond questioned the school district, saying it did not take a similar stance when homophobic graffiti was written at Division Avenue High School. The graffiti read "Blue F---" instead of Blue Dragons, the school's mascot.

After the teacher's post was circulated, a small group gathered at the high school to protest teacher's statements. Some were concerned the teacher would let his political ideology spill over into the impressionable young minds of students.

"I don't want to see this man ... teaching my son," Scott Walter, of Levittown, told News12. "Who knows if a child walks in there with a 'back the blue' shirt, and he snaps and hurts the kid or on a lesser note, maybe he just messes with his grades, how do you trust him now?"

Patch reached out to people who criticized the teacher's post, but the respondents either did not want to comment publicly or declined to be interviewed.

The thought of a teacher spewing political statements seemed absurd to Christopher Sotomayer because, he noted, teachers are prohibited from discussing their political views at school and also from having students linked to their social media accounts. He said the situation has been blown out of proportion by "bullies." He didn't condone the post but said it was taken out of context and not meant to refer to all law enforcement personnel. He added the teacher has every right to be outraged by the photo of the Capitol Police officer after accusations some law enforcement personnel aided rioters.

"I think it is outrageous that terrorists were aided and abetted by police on the ground," Sotomayer said.

Other supporters of the teacher backed his right to speak his mind.

Isabella Marie attended the teacher's class when she was in high school and said she never heard him expose his political beliefs. She said she understands why he made the post. She and her friends recently gathered outside the school to support him.

"There was a lot of hypocrisy and double standards surrounding the police departments and how the riot at the Capitol was handled," Maria wrote in an email to Patch, adding that the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer faced more backlash and violence from right-wing extremists and police than the rioters on Jan. 6. "To see an officer pat a rioter on the arm after breaking into the Capitol, and pose with them for a selfie should disgust everyone. It's contradictory to what many conservatives preached."

In a letter posted on the Levittown Public School website, Superintendent McDonald said the "sentiments expressed in the post are not those of the district" and do not "align with its values."
She said because the post was written on the employee's private Facebook page, "this employee is guaranteed the right to the freedom of speech." She did not comment further, saying the situation is a personnel matter. She did not respond to Patch's inquiry about the post; a public relations firm representing the school district has continued to decline to comment beyond McDonald's letter.

The school district's Board of Education published a letter on its website Jan. 8.

"A staff member posted what many perceive to be an offensive and hostile comment on social media," the letter reads. "We are disheartened in the content of the message and it does not represent who we are as a district or community. We take this situation seriously and the district is thoroughly investigating the matter.

"We understand it may be frustrating that the district cannot answer specific questions. However, please know, that the well-being of all parties is our main concern."