Teacher who shared conspiracies is on leave
The Burlington Area School District has placed a teacher on administrative leave after he told students he would travel to Washington, D.C., to stand up for “election integrity” and shared voter fraud conspiracy theories in class.
A parent identified the teacher as Jeff Taff, who teaches modern American history and modern world history at the high school.
Burlington parent Jon Phetteplace said his sophomore son is in Taff ’s American history class. On Wednesday, after riots took place in the U.S. Capitol, his son approached him with an email from the teacher about how he was going to Washington, D.C.
“I am sorry; but standing up for election integrity and our right to vote in FAIR elections is too important for me to NOT be there,” the email from Taff said.
Taff sent students another email that included directions and assigned readings on the New Deal, the directions included a YouTube video titled “Giuliani: 650K Illegal Ballots.” Taff did not appear to require the students watch the video for a graded assignment.
The video was from November and had circulated after the election. Pennsylvania’s Department of State said there was no evidence of fraud in the election and PolitiFact rated the claim by Giuliani “Pants on Fire.”
“I couldn’t believe it. It’s completely inappropriate,” said Phetteplace. “You’re there to teach. You’re not there to indoctrinate, especially with something that is not fact.”
Phetteplace said the emails were no longer in his son’s Google Classroom. His wife reported the emails to the school Thursday morning. He said it sounded like the school was already looking into it.
Phetteplace asked his son if his teacher made other comments that made him uncomfortable and his son told him that Taff believed the coronavirus was “a hoax.”
“That made him uncomfortable because his mom, my wife, is an ER nurse,” Phetteplace said.
His son also mentioned Taff made comments suggesting Jewish people created lies that led to “allowing themselves to be killed” in the Holocaust.
“That’s something that stood out because my wife, she is Jewish,” Phetteplace said. “My son, after hearing the comments on the Holocaust, was physically shaken from it.”
An email from the Burlington Area School District said a student came forward Tuesday with questions relating to an assignment from the teacher.
“An internal investigation has been launched into information this teacher posted in Google Classroom,” the statement from the school district said. “The
teacher has been placed on administrative leave so that we can investigate the totality of the circumstances, as we have not yet had an opportunity to speak with this teacher.”
The administration said the teacher used personal time off to travel, and it was not related to any duties as a teacher.
Burlington High School Principal Eric Burling did not respond to a request for comment.
A fundraiser for Taff has been set up on Facebook and claims Taff has retained an attorney.
According to the school’s staff page, Taff has taught in high schools in North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin. This was his seventh year at Burlington High School.
Taff did not respond to a call from the Journal Sentinel and his email appeared to be inactive.
“The thing is, that was a terroristic event that happened yesterday, and he’s just going to come back to school right afterwards?” Phetteplace said.
Phetteplace also said it was disturbing a teacher would bring up personal politics when a fourth grade Burlington teacher was attacked online for talking about racism with students after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot by a white police officer in nearby Kenosha.
“A teacher was asked to leave for talking about what the Black Lives Matter movement is and was not even pushing an agenda,” he said. “You’re pushing an agenda that is based on fiction and what Donald Trump is spewing.”
“I hope they fire him, because I think we’re at a point in our history where we need to start taking a stand against this.”
In a statement, Darnisha Garbade, president of the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism, said Taff’s students told her he often talked about his political views in class, “ranting about COVID numbers being fake, calling masks ‘political muzzles’ and claiming that the election was rigged.”
Taff should be fired, Garbade said, and the district should address others in the district who are contributing to a “racially hostile learning environment.”
“This teacher and his actions have been upheld by a system that continues to harm Black and brown students,” she said. “We implore the District to take this as an opportunity to listen to parents, students, and community members who have expressed concerns about the racism that has been plaguing the (district) and Burlington community as a whole.”
Garbade called Taff ’s actions “problematic” and “inappropriate” and remembers the response from the Burlington community when a teacher tried to include a Black Lives Matter curriculum in the classroom.
“A lot of members of the Burlington community rose up and accused her of indoctrination,” Garbade said. “And now here it is with this teacher, what he is teaching is indoctrination. He’s pushing his own political views and opinions on students and it’s unprofessional and it’s unethical.”
Laura Bielefeldt, member of the Burlington coalition, said her daughter had Taff in a previous year and feels that termination “would be valid response.”
“But I also feel that he has the right to participate in these events that he wants to participate in, we all have that freedom and liberty,” Bielefeldt said. “However, as a teacher and as a history teacher ... he shouldn’t be telling them what his opinions are or trying to influence their opinions.”
Bielefeldt said if the district does not fire him, she feels he needs to be put on probation and given a serious warning about being fired if something happens again.
After the destruction and death that occurred in Washington, D.C., Bielefeldt wonders how students would feel if Taff were to come back to the classroom.
“My concern is you made that very public to your students and now whether or not you participated in storming the Capitol Building, whether or not you were participating in some of these acts that people are labeling ‘domestic terrorism,’ you made it public that you were partaking in this event,” Bielefeldt said. “So now there are students that are going to sit in your classroom that know that you were there.”