A teacher with the Dallas Independent School District is being investigated after video surfaced of her firing a toy gun at a projected image of Donald Trump and yelling “Die!” in front of her class.
Payal Modi is a teacher at W.H. Adamson High School, and CBS DFW reports that the video surfaced on social media following Trump’s inauguration.
In the eight-second YouTube video, a video image of Trump is projected onto a whiteboard. Modi is shown holding a blue toy gun that she aims at Trump’s image; then she pulls the trigger multiple times and yells “Die!” at the screen.
The school district said in a statement that Modi had been placed on administrative leave and the district has opened an investigation.
“This is a personnel matter,” the statement said, “and, as such, we cannot comment.”
According to CBS DFW, many people on social media have expressed outrage over the video.
From the video, it doesn’t appear that the teacher is making threats at Trump; rather, she appears to be expressing a popular opinion that many people have: the wish that he would just go away.
Nevertheless, she is a teacher, and how this will play into First Amendment-protected free speech versus her job as a public servant remains to be seen.
She is not the first person to make remarks about getting rid of the president through violent means. As CBS DFW notes, Madonna landed in controversy last week after comments she made during the Women’s March on Washington.
“Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” the veteran pop singer said. “But I know that this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair.”
In a statement on Instagram Sunday, the singer said that she was trying to express that there are two ways to respond to Trump’s election: with love or with outrage, and she hopes to effect change “with love,” CBS DFW reports.
In any case, the Dallas teacher’s YouTube video is below. Watch for yourself and tell us what you think.
Read more at CBS DFW.