By Matthew Holloway |
In a post to X earlier this week, Chaya Raichik’s ‘Libs of TikTok’ revealed a now-deleted video allegedly created by an educator at the PPEP TEC High School’s Cesar Chavez Learning Center in San Luis, Arizona. The video urged teachers to “teach as hard as you can[.] So your students don’t grow up to be… Trump supporters.”
In a screenshot of the post, a man believed to be PPEP TEC High School teacher Edson Delgado, posting under the now-deleted profile ‘mrfacts5x’ wrote, in full, “This school year… Teach as hard as you can[.] So your students don’t grow up to be… Trump supporters. Make America Smart Again.”
In the caption of the post, he added, “If we don’t teach them critical thinking… someone else will teach them conspiracy theories. Let’s make America smart again.”
Libs of TikTok commented on the post, “Teacher at PPEP Cesar Chavez Learning Center in AZ wants to ‘teach’ students so they don’t grow up to be Trump supporters. Any comment @ppeptechs?? Do you condone teachers indoctrinating kids???”
The individual depicted in the post as ‘mrfacts5x’ bears a notable resemblance to Delgado, an educator who was honored by the office of Yuma County Superintendent Tom Hurt as doing “Great things at PPEP Tech!” In a March 25th post to Facebook and is identifiable through the certifications shown hanging behind him in the post to TikTok.
Several commenters on social media expressed reactions, ranging from concern to outrage. Political commentator Paul Szypula wrote, “Our schools are compromised.”
Columnist Emilia Henderson replied on X, “That teacher is PROGRAMMING kids with hatred for their own country. If PPEP allows this, they’re no school at all.. they’re a political FACTORY pushing Democrat obedience.”
Some critics of the TikTok post called for federal funding for PPEP TEC High School to be terminated, while others called for the teacher’s termination. At least one Arizona commenter, ‘JustADudeAZ,’ stated that he reported the incident to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. He wrote, “Credit to Tom Horne for listening and getting back to me. He provided where to go to keep people like this teacher honest. If you see teaching like this you can report them directly using this site,” and provided a link to the Empower Hotline.
The hotline is “the forum to report about inappropriate lessons that detract from teaching academic standards such as those that focus on race or ethnicity, rather than individuals and merit, promoting gender ideology, social emotional learning, or inappropriate sexual content,” according to the Arizona Department of Education.
AZ Free News has reached out to PPEP TEC High School for comment but received no response by the filing of this article.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.