Third-grade teacher fired over viral TikTok video about student protest

Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy said she was fired over a viral TikTok about her students sitting in protest during the Pledge of Allegiance

A third-grade teacher in Texas who posted a viral TikTok about her students sitting in protest during the Pledge of Allegiance says she has been fired.

Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy posted the video in March claiming that Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD) administrators had raised concerns with her after children had linked her lesson about Nazi propaganda to the Pledge.

The former Becker Elementary School teacher said she had been pulled into a “check-in meeting” with administrators in the TikTok, which has since been viewed more than 3.2 million times.

Ms DeLoretto-Chudy said that the school district was concerned that she was teaching students their “legal and constitutional rights”.

She explained in a video posted the same day that her students had made the decision to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance by themselves after teaching a lesson about how Adolf Hitler had tried to brainwash German children during Holocaust Remembrance Week.

She said she had a conversation with the third grade students about the Civil War origins of the Pledge, after which they chose not to stand at a school assembly.

@sophforpresident you’d think I was teaching way out west but this is downtown Austin… #TeachingTexas ♬ original sound - Sophie Marie

School children began reciting the Pledge as a “daily patriotic ritual” in 1892, according to the National Museum of American History.

Ms DeLoretto-Chudy said she also taught the children about Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback who was dropped by the San Francisco 49ers after kneeling during the national anthem.

The district’s employee handbook reportedly bans employees from using social media to interfere with their job. 

After the student protest, she went on TikTok to describe her interactions with the school administrators.

“In Texas it’s a crime to question the pledge of allegiance,” text on the viral TikTok, which has received thousands of comments, read.

Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy says she was fired after posting a viral TikTok about her interactions with the Austin Independent School District (Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy / TikTok)

Austin ISD administrators also confronted her with a long list of complaints about her job performance, including her failure to answer emails in a timely manner and work attire. 

Ms DeLoretto-Chudy told CBS Austin she was placed on administrative leave after being told her TikTok was “causing a lot of disruptions”.

She told the news outlet she had been recently informed she was being fired.

In a statement, a Austin Independent School District spokesperson said: “The district does not comment on personnel matters.” 

Under Texas law, state teachers are required to provide lessons about the Holocaust during the annual remembrance week.

Ms DeLoretto-Chudy, who previously ran as a Democrat for the California state legislature, is a prolific poster on TikTok on issues from abortion to voting rights.