|
?:reviewBody
|
-
On 26 January 2018, a Connecticut woman posted video to her Facebook page that was apparently video from a hidden camera showing California high school teacher Gregory Salcido talking pejoratively about the U.S. military: Salcido is both a long-time teacher at El Rancho High School and a city councilman in Pico Rivera, a working-class city of roughly 63,000 in southeast Los Angeles County. When we contacted him, he declined to comment. In the videos, which were secretly recorded by senior Victor Quinonez, Salcido's comments were often met with students' laughter. He criticizes military recruitment on the high school's campus and derides the glorification of the military, saying statements made by United States President Donald Trump about the its greatness are overblown. In the quote that drew the most outrage, Salcido said: The comments drew a rather intense round of what has become a familiar pattern of viral Internet outrage and backlash. In response to the controversy, Salcido has been officially admonished by the Pico Rivera City Council and stripped of his committee assignments. He has been placed on leave by the El Rancho Unified School District while the incident is under scrutiny. Even the United States Department of Defense has weighed in, calling Salcido's comments uninformed. Salcido told the Los Angeles Times he was receiving vulgar and violent threats directed against himself and his family. Pico Rivera is a tight-knit, primarily Latino suburb that has a strong tradition of honoring veterans and a large military-serving community, with two Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and two American Legion auxiliaries, said Mayor Gustavo Camacho. Speaking by phone, Camacho told us: But Trinity College sociology professor and U.S. Army veteran Johnny Eric Williams said although Salcido's comments were delivered clumsily, the teacher shouldn't be formally punished for making them, calling the response troubling and overblown. Williams himself was the subject of a separate Internet outrage storm in June 2017, when a post on his personal Facebook page intended to criticize structural racism and white supremacy went viral after right-wing web sites interpreted it as racist toward white people. Williams, who is African-American, received death threats and told us that he continues to get them to this day. He added: Williams told us that as a veteran, he found Salcido's comments about the intelligence of service members to be unfounded and an excellent example of intellectual elitism: Nevertheless, Williams cautioned that lacking the freedom to criticize the military is akin to fascism. He added: Quinonez told local news station KTLA he recorded Salcido because he wants to join the Marine Corps and was tired of the teacher's negative commentary on the military. Pico Rivera is a thriving community with a growing economy, but it's no stranger to cut-throat politics and controversy — and neither is Salcido. However, much of the controversy in the city's past has been contained to the local level. In 2010, he ignited debate when he took the helm in the city's rotating mayoral position, then removed a Bible from the Council chamber's dais and put a halt to invocation, saying it was unconstitutional. He was also placed on administrative leave by the school district that year after admonishing a student to be quiet by saying, Shut up, Kelly, before I kill you. Salcido said at the time the comment was purposefully over-the-top and intended in jest. The child's parent, Gerald Kelly, said he was angry because Salcido was talking about marriage equality for LGBTQ people, criticizing organized religion, and (again) speaking critically of the military in class: Salcido has clashed with his peers on the city council in the past as well, often as their vocal critic amid allegations of public corruption. Although Salcido has faced widespread criticism for his remarks, he has historically been a popular teacher with students. Some of his current and former students have come to his defense, averring that the teacher also promised to fully support a student if he decided to join the military in spite of Salcido's discouragement. (This purported gesture of reassurance was not shown in the videos.) More generally, students have described Salcido as real, inspiring and loved. One of Salcido's current students, a senior at El Rancho High School, spoke to us anonymously. (We have verified the student's identity.) That student described Salcido as a teacher who cares greatly about his students' success but deliberately provokes debate in his classes and encourages his students to have deep conversations. The student also told us that Salcido sometimes has a very sarcastic sense of humor, and sometimes it may be taken the wrong way, but offered the opinion that the teacher was expressing his genuine beliefs in the video clips: On 20 March 2018, the El Rancho Unified School District Board voted to terminate Salcido's employment as a teacher at El Rancho High School. As reported by the Whittier Daily News, Salcido has one month in which he can appeal the decision, during which time he will remain on unpaid leave.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}