Lehi High Teacher ‘No Longer An Employee’ With District Following Politically-Loaded Discussion

LEHI, Utah — Officials with the Alpine School District said a Lehi High School teacher who was placed on administrative leave after a video emerged online showing her engaging in a politically-loaded discussion with students “is no longer an employee” of the district.

The district’s announcement came less than one day after the video was posted online following the first day of classes for freshmen and sophomores at Lehi High.

“Alpine School District has concluded our investigation of the incident that occurred on August 17, 2021, at Lehi High School. Although the details of a personnel investigation are confidential, the teacher involved is no longer an employee of Alpine School District,” a statement from the district read.

A video of the incident was posted to Rumble.com and had over 334,000 views as of Wednesday morning.

In the 4:18 video clip, which appears to have been taken by a student, the teacher is heard saying, “I hate Donald Trump. I’m gonna say it. I don’t care what y’all think. Trump sucks.”

She goes on to tell the students, in regards to COVID-19, “This is my classroom and if you guys are going to put me at risk, you’re going to hear about it. Because I have to be here, I don’t have to be happy about the fact that there’s kids coming in here with their variants that could possibly get me or my family sick, that’s rude.”

She also tells the students in the video, “If you don’t believe in climate change, get the hell out,” and “if you’re a homophobe, get out.”

Several parents told KSL’s Garna Mejia their children came home and just broke down, saying they felt bullied by the one person that was supposed to create a safe class environment — their teacher.

The teacher expressed her opinions on a wide variety of topics, from vaccines to former President Donald Trump and parenting.

“You don’t have to do everything your parents say and you don’t have to believe everything your parents believe, because most likely you’re smarter than them,” the teacher said in the video.

Judy Storms’ son, a sophomore, was in one of the classes and captured some of the teacher’s comments in a video.

“I’m deeply disturbed,” Storms said. “We’re finding out this a pattern by the teacher and if this is a pattern and people have complained over the years, why has something not been done?”

Storms and multiple parents said their students felt bullied and belittled by the teacher’s remarks.

“An adult bullying a minor — that’s illegal, and because she took it that far, I really think she should be dismissed,” Storms said.

A district spokesperson said this kind of behavior won’t be tolerated and teachers receive specific training on handling these topics at the beginning of each school year.

Tuesday was the first day of class for 10th grader Breckynn Wilson, who said it was intense to be in the classroom listening to the teacher.

She said the incident started as they were going over the disclosure document and started talking about masks and vaccines.

“She blew up at us, calling us ignorant for deciding not to get the vaccine,” Wilson said. “I honestly just wanted it to stop. So in the video that was posted, you can hear me in the background saying that ‘This is a chemistry class, and why are we talking about this?’ over and over again because it was pointless.”

Wilson added she had never seen an outburst like that from a teacher and said she felt threatened.

“It was her calling my family ignorant and calling them dumb,” she said. “When my parents are really smart — owning their own businesses. Saying that I don’t have to listen to my parents and that my parents are dumb and whatever they tell you — you don’t have to listen to that. Once you stop listening to your parents the world opens up for you and got really hurtful and really made me angry.”

Wilson was worried about speaking up too much for fear of being sent to the office and was glad the video made its way online.

“She told us that in years past that kids had gone to the office complaining about her and that no one did anything,” she said. “I’m glad that the video does exist so that people can actually see what went down.”