A northwestern California school board meeting in Natomas, located north of Sacramento, became raucous as outraged members of the public and parents demanded additional accountability for a teacher who has said he wanted to turn his students into revolutionaries.
The issue came to light after Project Veritas released a video that showed teacher Gabriel Gipe saying that he tried to “scare the f—” out of students to help motivate them politically. The footage was also released showing photos of his classroom, which included a poster of brutal, former dictator Mao Zedong and an Antifa flag hanging on the wall.
At the meeting, the school board had begun to move to place Gipe on unpaid leave. However, parents demanded more, accusing others of allowing Gipe’s behavior to continue.
A man, identified as Jay Ash, asked, “You feel this pain right here? It’s not going away. The only question I got is, where does the f—–g buck stop?” He continued, saying, “This is bigger than one teacher…there were so many red flags. The man had an Antifa flag behind his desk. He had Chairman Mao in the f—–g corner. Are you kidding me?
Ash’s comments and other fiery comments garnered loud applause and shouts from the audience.
Another woman, who said she attended the meeting with her daughter, received cheers of support and rounds of applause when she spoke.
“The reason why my daughter is standing behind me is because my job as a parent is to protect her from anybody that has ill will towards her,” she stated. The parent said that her daughter was either in Gipe’s class or had ongoing contact with him at school.
“In two weeks and 13 days, he was allowed to change my daughter’s mind about some fascist crap that y’all have let in this school.” The attendees burst into raucous applause after she spoke. The school year began on August 13.
Many speakers said they were worried about criminal conduct by the teacher and district and demanded an investigation. The comment period lasted substantially longer than the 20 minutes allotted and featured outrage from speakers, primarily parents concerned about Gipe’s impact on their children.
Gipe also allegedly offered extra credit for students that demonstrated in Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and other demonstrations.
Swift response from district
The school district released the following statement:
“Today, a contingency of Ed Center representatives, representatives from District 1—Councilmember Ashby’s Office, and parent leaders spent parts of the day on the Inderkum High School campus. Those with differing political views are being targeted. Our Natomas community can embrace its diversity of ideas, beliefs, and backgrounds and peacefully, respectfully recognize our individual freedoms. NUSD followed the initial steps of due process, moving swiftly to determine beyond what was seen of the teacher in the video and what, if any, policies or laws were broken. After two days of investigation, swift action was needed, and it was taken.”
Gipe, who also has a hammer and sickle tattoo, will be fired after bragging on a video in which he stated that he was working to radicalize his students “further and further left,” his employer announced.
Natomas Unified School District Superintendent Chris Evans wrote in a letter that Gipe would be terminated after the numerous complaints about his actions and statements, including the statement from the recording, “I have 180 days to turn them into revolutionaries.”
