A California high school teacher has found herself at the center of controversy after several Zoom outbursts she made went viral.
What happened?
Alissa Piro, an English teacher at San Marcos High School in southern California, was caught on video telling the parents of her students to “come at me” if they had concerns with her teaching lessons.
“If your parent wants to talk to me about their profession and their opinion on their profession, I would love to hear that. I know very little about anything else in the other world other than education,” Pirro said.
“However, if your parent wants to come talk to me about how I’m not doing a good enough job in distance learning, based on what you need as an individual — just dare them to come at me,” the teacher continued. “Because I am so sick to my stomach of parents trying to tell educators how to do their job.”
“I have never once gone to a doctor’s appointment and tried to tell my medical health provider how to treat me. You know why? Because I know nothing about that!” Piro added.
In another incident, Piro essentially screamed at a student who asked about forming a “white student union.” Piro said, “You don’t need a white student union, Jake. You get everything.”
Newly released video of a @SanMarcosUSD HS teacher going off on students and their parents over distance learning a… https://t.co/HiUi9sms6c
— Reopen California Schools (@Reopen California Schools)1618187949.0
According to Fox News, Piro was referring to an ongoing lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and several school districts as local teacher unions force students to remain in distance learning environments.
A mother of a student in one of Piro’s classes relayed the behavior to San Marcos High School principal Adam Dawson. However, Dawson has failed to address the outbursts, Fox News reported, despite calling such behavior “inexcusable.”
“She’s a bully,” the mother reportedly wrote in a private Facebook group. “These rants were so often my child said he ‘tuned her out’ and was just trying to get thru the class…this is exactly what’s wrong with education and if the school district sweeps this then they are just as responsible.”
Why are students still learning from home?
Middle and high school students in San Marcos Unified School District remain stuck in a hybrid learning model in which students are split into groups and only attend school in-person two days per week.
In COVID-19 reopening plans, the district insists that students must maintain 6-foot social distancing despite updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say students only need 3 feet of distance.
