Good Lord!:
Standing in a semicircle on a green and blue patterned rug, a group of 4- and 5-year-old children in Riverside County, Calif., performed a call-and-response with their teacher.
“Who’s our president?” the teacher asked in a video filmed last month.
“Biden!” the children responded.
“What do we want to do with him?” the teacher said.
“We want him out!” they chanted, swinging their thumbs back in a “get out” gesture.
The teacher, who is not seen in the video and has not been publicly identified, posted the recording to an app that staff members at Turning Point Christian School, a private school in Norco, Calif., use to communicate with parents.
Christina McFadden was on her lunch break on Feb. 18 when she saw the video. She spotted her daughter in the crowd.
“My initial reaction was fear,” McFadden, 35, told The Washington Post in a Facebook Messenger exchange. “Fear that this was sent to 14 families with differing views. Fear that it appeared to be a political propaganda video and that it would spread as such with my daughter front and center.”
The school removed the video hours later and posted an apology message to the app.
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“[The video] did not share our school and church philosophy of honoring and respecting authority including those in government positions,” Linda Solorzano, the preschool director, wrote in the note, which was reviewed by The Post.
“We are sorry for any misunderstanding this could [have] created,” she added. “With courtesy toward 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.”
Turning Point Christian School did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Post.
About a month after the incident, McFadden posted the video on her Facebook page. She was frustrated with the school’s response because the teacher faced no disciplinary action, she said.
“The teacher remains in the classroom because, according to the school she is ‘repentant and has learned from her mistake,’” McFadden wrote in the March 12 post.
McFadden, a teacher with a master’s degree in educational leadership, also said she’s disappointed her daughter’s teacher “was so proud of this content.”
“We as Americans have the right to determine who and what we believe in,” she wrote. “We as parents have the right to determine the beliefs and values we want to instill in our children. A teacher does not have the right to indoctrinate her students.”
The administration has not publicly acknowledged the video, posted a public apology or commented to media outlets. McFadden said the lack of accountability for the video led her to pull her 5-year-old daughter out of the school and enroll her elsewhere.
“There are a lot of wonderful teachers and innocent children at the school,” she said in a message to The Post. “The school administration’s lack of response now, and at the time of the video, is a disservice to all of them.”
Standing in a semicircle on a green and blue patterned rug, a group of 4- and 5-year-old children in Riverside County, Calif., performed a call-and-response with their teacher.
“Who’s our president?” the teacher asked in a video filmed last month.
“Biden!” the children responded.
“What do we want to do with him?” the teacher said.
“We want him out!” they chanted, swinging their thumbs back in a “get out” gesture.
The teacher, who is not seen in the video and has not been publicly identified, posted the recording to an app that staff members at Turning Point Christian School, a private school in Norco, Calif., use to communicate with parents.
Christina McFadden was on her lunch break on Feb. 18 when she saw the video. She spotted her daughter in the crowd.
“My initial reaction was fear,” McFadden, 35, told The Washington Post in a Facebook Messenger exchange. “Fear that this was sent to 14 families with differing views. Fear that it appeared to be a political propaganda video and that it would spread as such with my daughter front and center.”
The school removed the video hours later and posted an apology message to the app.
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“[The video] did not share our school and church philosophy of honoring and respecting authority including those in government positions,” Linda Solorzano, the preschool director, wrote in the note, which was reviewed by The Post.
“We are sorry for any misunderstanding this could [have] created,” she added. “With courtesy toward 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.”
Turning Point Christian School did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Post.
About a month after the incident, McFadden posted the video on her Facebook page. She was frustrated with the school’s response because the teacher faced no disciplinary action, she said.
“The teacher remains in the classroom because, according to the school she is ‘repentant and has learned from her mistake,’” McFadden wrote in the March 12 post.
McFadden, a teacher with a master’s degree in educational leadership, also said she’s disappointed her daughter’s teacher “was so proud of this content.”
“We as Americans have the right to determine who and what we believe in,” she wrote. “We as parents have the right to determine the beliefs and values we want to instill in our children. A teacher does not have the right to indoctrinate her students.”
The administration has not publicly acknowledged the video, posted a public apology or commented to media outlets. McFadden said the lack of accountability for the video led her to pull her 5-year-old daughter out of the school and enroll her elsewhere.
“There are a lot of wonderful teachers and innocent children at the school,” she said in a message to The Post. “The school administration’s lack of response now, and at the time of the video, is a disservice to all of them.”