Parent Furious After Teacher Leads Preschoolers In Anti-Biden Chant: 'We Want Him Out'
KEY POINTS
- Children aged 4 and 5 were filmed denouncing Biden in political chants
- Short clip of the incident was shared on a messaging app with parents
- It is unclear whether the teacher faced any disciplinary action from the school
A private school in Southern California apologized to parents after a video surfaced showing a teacher making her class of preschoolers call for President Joe Biden’s exit from the White House.
The video captured the unidentified teacher at Turning Point Christian School in Norco allegedly making the preschoolers, aged 4 and 5, chant anti-Biden statements, according to AP News.
“Who’s our president?” the teacher asked and received the response, “Biden,” from her students in unison.
“What do we want to do with him?” the teacher then asked her students.
“We want him out!” the students quipped twice in the 8 to 9-second video.
The video of the incident, which allegedly took place on Feb. 18, was shared on a messaging app that the school uses to communicate with parents. The video was deleted from the app about three hours after it was posted.
“I had to watch it multiple times to realize, is this really happening?” one parent, Christina McFadden, told ABC 7 News.
The mother said she was shocked when she picked up her daughter from school and noted that the first thing the child said was related to the political chant.
"The first thing she said to me when I picked her up was 'We want him out,'" McFadden told the outlet. "That was the great message she learned that day. Her first history lesson."
The school shared a message on the parent communication app and apologized for the incident.
“Earlier today a video was posted that has since been deleted as it did not share our school and church philosophy of honoring and respecting authority including those in government positions," the message said.
“We are sorry for any misunderstanding this could of [sic] created. With courtesy towards the families of our campus and the children in the classroom I am asking you to please not share with others or post the video on any social media platform," the school's message continued.
McFadden said she pulled her daughter out of the school in light of the incident.
"It doesn't matter, at this point, which side of the fence you're on. This can happen in your child's classroom, and it is happening," the furious mother told the outlet.
It is unclear whether the teacher in question faced any disciplinary action in light of the video. McFadden claimed that the school told her the teacher was “repentant” and learned from her mistake.
School officials did not respond to the publication’s request for a comment Monday.
Dr. Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at UCLA, found the teacher’s actions inappropriate and told ABC 7 News: "I've always believed the role of teachers is not to indoctrinate students about what to think. It's to help develop critical thinking skills so students can make their own."
"I know private schools operate under a different set of guidelines and procedures," Howard added. "But I don't know even in a private domain that those leadership officials would want teachers telling their students what to think about a particular political figure."