DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — A Douglas County School District teacher has resigned from her role on the teachers union’s board after being placed on paid leave following online comments calling a Covington Catholic school student “Hitler Youth.”
Images of Twitter posts from a now-deleted account, attributed to Mountain Ridge Middle School teacher Michelle Grissom, appeared to be an attempt to doxx, or publicly identify, the high school student from Kentucky seen standing face-to-face with a Native American activist in Washington, D.C. last Friday.
The posts contain the name and photo of a different student who was not at the protest, his family said. One post refers to him as “Hitler Youth.”
Grissom resigned from her leadership post with the teachers union Thursday. On Wednesday, the district told parents Grissom was placed on paid administrative leave.
Kallie Leyba, president of the Douglas County Federation, declined to comment but confirmed that Grissom had resigned from her seat on the union’s executive board.
It’s not clear if and when Grissom will return to her 7th-grade social studies classroom in Highlands Ranch.
Multiple attempts to reach Grissom by phone and email this week have been unsuccessful.
Online anger over the posts attacking and misidentifying the student continued following her suspension.
The student identified in the posts attributed to Grissom was not in Washington, D.C. at the time, according to his family, but rather playing a basketball game in Kentucky. Dr. John Jackson told 9NEWS on Tuesday that he is the father of 17-year-old Jay Jackson, who was wrongly identified in the posts.
Jackson said his only goal in drawing attention to the posts online was to have them removed.
“We were shocked and disappointed when nobody from the school district reached out to us,” Jackson said. “We feel like this is a serious offense and would like at least some form of acknowledgment and apology.”
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