"America's never been great!" Georgia middle school teacher's classroom rant
HENRY COUNTY, Ga. - Hampton Middle School teacher's rant on how, in her words, "America's never been great" has gotten national attention after a student in the class recorded it all on her cell phone. The Henry County School District has since issued a statement about the incident saying they do not condone what the teacher did.
Like many schools across the metro Atlanta area, Hampton Middle School is out this week for spring break, however, the district issued a statement saying they have taken appropriate action, but what that action was, the district didn't elaborate.
For the girl who sat through the rant, she's already transferred out of Henry County.
"So, when my president says 'Let's make America Great Again,' when was he talking about?" the teacher reportedly could be heard saying on the recording.
Josie Orihuela, who is 12, recorded her teachers rant back on February 1. Josie said it was the first day of Black History Month and the class was supposed to watch a video, but instead, she said her teacher decided to talk about President Trump.
"'Maybe he's talking about the '30s when so and so,' that's when I was like 'Oh my goodness, my moms going to love this!'" Orihuela exclaimed.
In the audio, the teacher reportedly can be heard asking 'When was America great? In the '60s with segregation? The '70s during Black Panther Movement? Or the 90's when police officers beat Rodney King.'
Later, she talked about immigration and students' ancestors.
"The hardest thing to hear was that she told me, like personally, she looked directly at me, and like said 'You killed millions of my people' and then that was probably the part that hurt me the most because I knew I didn't, but then when she says that I'm like 'Oh, my God. What's wrong with me?"
Henry County schools issued a statement which reads in part:
"…we do not condone the action taken by our teacher in this incident and will not tolerate the infusion of political bias into classroom lessons."
Orihuela has since transferred out of the Henry County School District. She said she never expected her recording to get this much attention, but she's glad it did.
"I think it's the kind of stuff needs to get because if schools like this keep getting bad then I know what's going to happen to the future," said Orihuela.
The district said teachers have a responsibility to plan instruction aligned to state standards, saying regrettably that was not the case here.