A Florida teacher was filmed falsely telling students 'Antifa' was behind the Capitol riots
- A Florida teacher was filmed falsely telling students "Antifa" was responsible for the January 6 Capitol riots.
- The substitute teacher is "no longer with" Edward W. Bok Academy South or Lake Wales Charter Schools (LWCS), the HR director at LWCS confirmed to Insider.
- There's no evidence "Antifa" was responsible for violence during the Capitol riots; about 100 pro-Trump supporters have been charged so far.
A substitute teacher seen on video falsely telling her students that "Antifa" stormed the Capitol on January 6 is no longer with the school.
The video was recorded inside a classroom at Edward W. Bok Academy South in Lake Wales, Florida. The school is a part of the Lake Wales Charter Schools (LWCS) system.
According to the Daily Dot, the video was taken by a student and the person addressing the students in it is a retired teacher who had returned to the school as a substitute.
Dr. Julio Acevedo, the director of human resources and transportation at LWCS, confirmed to Insider that the teacher who appeared in the viral video is "no longer with" the school or charter system.
Reports on TMZ and YourTango suggest the teacher was fired.
"We understand there's a video released and shared on social media of an incident on our campus. Our administration is aware. The substitute is no longer employed at our school, nor within the LWCS system," Damien Moses, Bok Academy's principal, told YourTango in a statement.
In a statement to TMZ, Moses said: "We met with her and she has been dismissed not only from our school, but also from the Lake Wales Charter School System."
Moses did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The video first made waves on Instagram
The video appears to have first been posted on the Instagram account Know Your Racists on Tuesday, where it has been viewed over 27,000 times at the time of writing, and was later shared to the r/PublicFreakout and r/WorldNewsVideo subreddits on Wednesday. At the time of writing, the two Reddit posts sharing the video had over 50,000 upvotes and more than 3,500 comments.
The two-minute video starts in the middle of the unnamed teacher speaking, and she can be heard saying that "supporters arrived and suddenly there was violence. Already, three of those had been identified as 'Antifa' members that were in the building."
"They were paid to be there, they were paid to be violent so that the Trump supporters look bad," she can be heard saying, repeating baseless, debunked misinformation that blamed last week's violent siege at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, by Trump supporters on "Antifa" members.
In the clip, a student can be heard pushing back against the teacher's claims, saying: "Didn't Proud Boys and Trump supporters, weren't they the ones breaking into the Capitol?"
The teacher can be seen shaking her head and replying, "No. In fact, there's a video showing Trump supporters trying to stop the people from breaking windows."
It's unclear which video the teacher was referring to.
"Anybody can wear MAGA hats," she added.
There is no evidence of 'Antifa' causing violence at the Capitol riots
Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 in a violent riot while votes were being certified inside the federal building solidifying President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 election win.
About 100 pro-Trump rioters have been charged with crimes so far.
The teacher seen in the video embedded above may have been referring to the viral, false Washington Times article that claimed a software company ID'd "Antifa" members in the crowd storming the Capitol.
The facial recognition company, XRVision, told BuzzFeed News that the claims made in the story were false, and that the conservative news website "never attempted to contact XRVision to verify their false claim prior to publication."
The Washington Times later took down the story, but not before Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz cited it on the House floor.
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