Teacher could lose job over politically charged assignment

By KCRA Staff

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — KCRA 3 Investigates has obtained photos showing a Sacramento area high school student’s assignments stamped with the face of Kim Jong-Un, and posters from inside the child’s classroom meant to divide students by their political ideologies.

This is the latest development in a story KCRA 3 has been following after Natomas Unified School District placed Inderkum High School Teacher Gabriel Gipe on leave and announced plans to fire him just three weeks into the new school year.

A parent whose child was enrolled in Gipe’s AP Government class sent the photos to KCRA 3. The parent wanted to remain anonymous but mentioned conversations their child had with Gipe in which they felt singled out.

“He has his platform as the teacher to deliver his message and to say what he wants to say to the class, but when confronted about it in a private conversation, he retracts it. Every student in that class got his message: If something doesn’t directly affect you, your opinion doesn’t (expletive) matter,” the parent said.

Following an investigation into Gipe’s teaching methods, the school district placed Gipe on paid leave after a video was released by conservative activist group Project Veritas, in which Gipe is heard talking about teaching students his political ideologies.

“Students were asked to put their photo up on a quad chart based on where their ideology was,” Chris Evans, superintendent for Natomas Unified School District, explained. “It had, like the Soviet Union Flag up there. It had other flags, forcing students at the age of 17, maybe some 18, to publicly state what their ideology was. That’s completely inappropriate. The teacher’s job is to teach factual information, critical thinking skills to allow the students to work with their families, to make their own decisions and determinations.”

Evans confirmed that some of the materials were purchased by Gipe in late April or early May of this year, but he also stated it’s unclear how long the posters had been on the classroom wall.

A site administrator didn’t realize a political poster was on the whiteboard of Gipe’s classroom in 2018, according to Evans. They described a poster that referenced a proposition from the 2018 midterm elections. It gave the teacher’s perspective of what they would like to see done.

Evans said that poster is illegal because it violates board policy and education codes. They went on to say that the school district releases political activity guides every two years ahead of an election. Further, the language from that guide follows much of the same language from the staff handbooks.

“Despite those efforts, despite the fact that teacher did receive the email, and we can tell he opened and read it, at least opened it, I can’t tell you that the teacher read to the bottom,” Evans said. “That’s one of the things we’re going to continue to expand our professional development on, is making sure that all of our staff are aware that political action on schools has very limited restrictions, both at the district level here in Natomas Unified, by our board, and by the state of California. So that’s one of the areas we have to get better at.”

The district also plans to teach administrators “to walk the walls with their eyes,” meaning that they should look around the walls during classroom visits and walkthroughs. During one such visit at Gipe’s classroom, a learning objective on the four major elements of the Declaration of Independence was observed. While that topic itself is fundamental toward U.S. history and government, what was missed in a photo taken of the classroom was a political poster from 2018.

“I suspect that we have more professional development to do for administrators,” Evans said. “As they’re learning how to lead kids through social-emotional supports, as they’re continuing to learn how to chant transition from teachers, to instructional leaders, from teachers who manage 180 kids in a class if they’re high school, that’s we’re talking about, in and out of five classes — 180 kids, or to a management role and an instructional leadership role. There’s a lot to learn and sometimes things will be missed. That clearly was and we’ve done nothing but own and apologize for that.”

Evans said he wasn’t aware of any previous complaints made against the teacher. The district has checked with emails and constituents alike. But Evans said if communication was missed, he said he would apologize for it.

Evans said during the investigation, Gipe claimed some of his comments were taken out of context.

On Friday, KCRA 3 will air more of Gipe’s interview where we focus on what the district is doing moving forward, and if other teachers are being looked into.

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