A 25-year-old Florida middle school social studies teacher was busted for hosting a podcast promoting white supremacist views, according to exclusive reporting by the Huffington Post.
Dayanna Volitich of Crystal River Middle School, who runs her racist podcast under the pseudonym Tiana Dalichov, bragged about having shared her views with her students during her February 26th broadcast.
Volitich's podcast, however, is not the only outlet she uses to spread her racially charged, alt-right philosophies. Her Twitter account, @TianaDalichov, has since been suspended, for the second time. "Dayanna Volitich suggests Muslims be eradicated from the earth, believes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories ... and teaches middle school social studies," HuffPost reported on Saturday.
One guest on her podcast suggested that white supremacists should do a better job of infiltrating schools. "Be more covert and just start taking over those places," he said. "Right," Volitich replied. "I'm absolutely one of them." According to reports, Voltich has been removed from the classroom. Following the Huffington Post's story, her social media accounts and podcasts were subsequently deleted.
"She does not speak on behalf of the Citrus County School District," said Scott Herbert, executive director of the Citrus County School District. "The views she's listed [online] are really not in line with how our district operates." Herbert assured that the school district is investigating the matter.
In her latest podcast session, Voltich admitted that her students often asked her about her views, and that she replied with "unbiased facts," such as that terrorism by Muslims will continue until "we eradicate them from the face of the Earth."
Excerpt from Voltich's February 26th podcast.Photo Credit: ANGRYWHITEMEN.ORG
Following the release of the story, the Internet shared its thoughts. It's exactly what you'd expect.
Perhaps most relevant to this is the debate over whether or not to arm teachers, which came up in discussions on Twitter.
Setting aside the practical challenges to arming teachers, the potential ethical problems continue to mount.
"Remember that she would like be armed and trained in using guns in classroom by the new Florida legislation," remarked Lilly Evans.
"I worked in schools all my life and cannot imagine how guns & teachers go together, training or not," replied Liz Beth. "Their # 1 priority is keeping kids QUIET & comforted. I think the real issue is guns, not schools. Are we to train & arm "ticket takers" at the movie theatres next?"
Thoughts on how someone as young as Voltich could harbor so much racial and cultural animus also propagated, and it's certainly a valid question.
But as we've all learned in the era of Trump, white nationalists have their man in the White House, and they see no reason to call it quits. "Trump told her it's Ok," Grant Stern noted.
