Exposed: A middle-school teacher's racist double life

Hello from Must Reads No Images? Click here     Yesterday HuffPost published an investigation on a teacher in a Florida middle school.  Dayanna Volitich, a 25-year-old social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School, has been secretly hosting the white nationalist podcast “Unapologetic” under the pseudonym “Tiana Dalichov” and bragging about teaching her views in a public school, HuffPost discovered.  In her most recent podcast on Feb. 26, a guest railed against diversity in schools, dismissing the idea that “a kid from Nigeria and a kid who came from Sweden are supposed to learn exactly the same” and have the “same IQ.” Volitich enthusiastically agreed with the guest, and went on to argue that “science” has proven that certain races are smarter than others.  In the same episode, Volitich boasted about bringing her white nationalist beliefs into the classroom and hiding her ideology from administrators. She said that when parents complained to the school’s principal about how she is injecting political bias into the classroom, Volitich lied to the principal and said it was not true.  “She believed me and backed off,” she said. After HuffPost made inquiries about Volitich’s white nationalism to the Citrus County School District on Friday, “Tiana Dalichov” tweeted that she “might disappear for a while” and then set her account to private. She also scrubbed the website for her podcast. HuffPost captured some of her more incendiary remarks for the story. Read them here.  Christopher Mathias, Jenna Amatulli, and Rebecca Klein were the reporters at HuffPost who figured out "Tiana Dalichov's" true identity. We spoke to Klein about how they got the story.  What was the seed for the story? Chris Mathias came across the subject's podcast, in which she bragged about being a public school teacher and bringing her views into the classroom under a pseudonym. We set out to find out who this teacher was. And after some searching, we cracked the case.  What was most challenging about reporting it? Tracking down the teacher in question. But it was almost as though she was hiding in plain sight. Her pseudonym was very similar to her real name, and she used a real picture when posting about her white nationalist beliefs. What was most surprising? The amount of positive feedback we got for readers about this story. In such a partisan environment, it's easy to come to expect substantial pushback on stories about people's belief systems, extreme as they may be. But overall, most people we heard from seemed to believe that these views do not belong in the classroom. READ THE STORY Love, Nick and Sam PS: Elsewhere in the United States anti-Semitic incidents in the country rose nearly 60 percent in 2017, and at a conservative convention attended by President Trump there were several white supremacists groups and individuals who were also invited.     .   The internet's best stories, and interviews with the people who tell them. Did you like reading this email? Forward it to a friend. Or sign up! Can't get enough? Check out our Morning Email.   ©2018 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 You are receiving this email because you signed up for updates from HuffPost. Feedback | Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe    . - - Preferences  |  Unsubscribe