A middle school teacher in Florida is being investigated after it was reported that she not only hosted a white supremacist podcast, but has also been trying to insert her views into her lessons with young students. On top of this, she used Twitter to share anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and put forward the idea that Muslims should be eradicated from the planet.
Earlier this week, the Huffington Post reported that Dayanna Volitich, who teaches social studies at Crystal River Middle School, used the pseudonym 'Tiana Dalichov' online. Under this name, she hosted a podcast called Unapologetic.
The description of the pilot episode of the podcast, which is on the streaming service TuneIn, it aims to cut "through the myths and misconceptions of the modern cultural and political jungle" and "covers taboo topics that will take you on a ride you'll ever be able to forget".
In a recent episode, which was released on February 26, she revealed that she was a public school teacher and was proud to bring her white supremacist views into the classroom. She also mentioned that this hasn't gone unnoticed, as there were "a couple of instances where parents were concerned," including one parent who emailed the principal to claim she was "injecting political bias" into her teaching. When she was confronted about it, she lied, and the principal "believed [her] and backed off".
On this episode, her guest was the white supremacist public figure Lana Lokteff, who works for the media outfit Red Ice TV - which the Southern Poverty Law Center recently designated as a hate group.
Dalichov agreed with a guest on the episode who dismissed the idea that "a kid from Nigeria and a kid who came from Sweden are supposed to learn exactly the same," then claimed that science had shown that some races are smarter than others, despite the fact that this 'science' was disproven hundreds of years ago.
Talking about white supremacists, both the host and the guest agreed that more white supremacists need to be in the education system. The guest said: "They don't have to be vocal about their views, but get in there. Be more covert and just start taking over those places." Dalichov replied: "Right, I'm absolutely one of them".
In addition to this, she used a Twitter account with the same pseudonym that has since been deleted. Screenshots have emerged including statements such as that terrorism will continue "until we eradicate [Muslims] from the face of the earth". She also wrote that "it isn't supremacist or hateful to prefer your own people over others" and "systematic racism and white privilege aren't real".
This account has seen its fair share of praise and retweets from various neo-Nazis and white supremacists on Twitter, including David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Citrus County School District issued a statement about the matter, in which they said that she "has been removed from the classroom" after they were "made aware of a concerning podcast by a Huffington Post reporter" on March 2.
The statement continued:
"The Human Resources department was notified and an investigation was initiated immediately. The teacher has been removed from the classroom and the investigation is ongoing. Pursuant to Florida Statute an open investigation and materials related to it are exempt from public record and cannot be discussed until the investigation is complete."
This is particularly worrying that people are actually trying to inject these hateful views into those looking to learn, especially with the recent revelations about Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz.
Swastikas were found on Cruz' gun magazines, while in social media groups he was found to write that he hated "jews, n*****s, immigrants", called those in interracial relationships traitors, and claimed that the best way to deal with them all was to "shoot them in the back of head [sic]".
Thankfully Volitich has been removed from the classroom, where her words could have been doing serious harm to susceptible minds of the youth.
