A Nevada middle school teacher called White people "problematic" and education in general "racist" in a series of videos on TikTok.
Jennifer Leja is a teacher at Hyde Park Middle School located in the Clark County School District. In Oct. 2021, Leja posted a series of videos relating to race theory on TikTok.
In one video, Leja was singing "start a riot" in expression of support of the following statements:
Leja proceeded to explain why she thinks White teachers are "problematic."
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"I say this as somoene who is a White teacher. I have to be aware of the problem if there's any chance of me helping to fix it," she said.
Leja then lambasted the "White majority" in education "since that means that everything in education from our suspensions and our detentions to the way that we handle conflict, from our textbooks to our curriculum, everything is going to be handled with a White perspective rather than a multicultural one."
"[W]e are all White and then all of our admin are White," she said.
"And while, yes, myself and other White educators, we can improve this and do the best that we can to try to fix this in education, the more long-lasting solution would be to hire more minority educators and to encourage students who are BIPOC to try to go into more higher education fields," she added. "And until we do that, all White teachers that are currently in the position are going to be considered problematic. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that we have things to work on and that we need to be aware of those things."
Leja then responded to a comment, which said, "Just so you know this b----t contributes to the failed system. You're failing your students more than the school system is."
Leja responded using the lyrics of a song, which said "I'll be damned if I listen to the facts about the mouth of a man with an unwashed a--."
On another occasion, Leja responded to a user who said that "white social studies teachers are the worst."
The Nevada teacher replied, "teachers are either the most woke humans on the planet of the most garbage humans - there is no in between."
She then went onto call Christopher Columbus a "Christian Colonizer."
Regarding education itself being "racist," Leja said, "The system definitely is! And many of the things were required to teach continue to perpetuate racism too."
On another occasion, Leja said that she was close to fighting another teacher for "misgendering" a student.
"I'm almost there," she said.
The district and Leja did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
