Peekskill Teacher-Student Political Debate Goes Viral [VIDEO]

PEEKSKILL, NY — A Peekskill student who calls himself a right-winger posted a YouTube video about a political confrontation with a teacher he calls far-leftist, over President Donald Trump and his policies. The video went viral — 984-583 views. Now the district is investigating.

The video was caught by a friend of the student. The discussion, at times heated, covers a lot of hot-button topics, from immigration policy to the Las Vegas massacre.

According to the Peekskill Post, the student, whose first name is Diego, has given interviews about it to conservative media.

The student said this about it on YouTube:

She was talking loudly about Trump and I am one of the few right-wingers in my school. So she asked me why I supported him seeing as how I am Latino, and he hates us. I responded saying that he doesn't hate Latinos, he just wants to remove Illegals from the US. It then shifted to how there are a war on blacks and other minorities because of cop killings, and stated that the FBI statistics I was using were skewered because it was seeded on white supremacy. It finally shifted to where she said how when its a Muslim attack, its labelled terrorism, but Vegas was not since he was white. I told her that so far, unless something turns up, we have not found any political or religious aims, and therefore it cannot be viewed as a terrorist incident because the definition of terrorism states violence in the pursuit of political aim (((anti-fa))). At that point, she claimed multiple times the dictionary was wrong and that she knew more than it.

I was only able to capture 90% of the confrontation. Sorry for low quality and my slight stuttering, it comes and goes randomly I have no idea why.

The video was posted Nov. 2.

As more and more people saw it and talked about it, Mary Keenan Foster, the district's interim superintendent, released a statement about the incident Nov. 11.

I am aware of the video that was posted on social media which depicted one of our high school teachers
and a twelfth grade student engaged in an intense conversation regarding political and cultural issues.
Our District strongly believes that providing an opportunity for students to engage in an open dialogue
with a productive exchange of views must be encouraged and fostered by our teachers, as we prepare our
high school students for adulthood. Our District expects that discussions involving challenging and
sometimes contentious political and/or cultural topics will be handled in a thoughtful, respectful and
constructive manner.
As educators, it is our responsibility to exercise leadership while in the classroom and to encourage
respect for our students at all times, even when disagreements regarding the issue discussed persist. At
the same time, one of our responsibilities is to instill in our students that appropriate civil discourse is
always essential. We are continuing to investigate this matter to better understand the facts upon which
we will take appropriate action.
Regardless of the foregoing, we recognize that further dialogue is necessary in our school community,
reminding everyone of our expectations and respect for all.

Watch the video here.

PHOTO: Peekskill High School/ Patch