A teacher at a South Bronx middle school was fined $300 for showing her eighth grade students a video of an ISIS terrorist beheading a journalist, allegedly telling them, “This is what’s going on in the real world.”
The incident occurred in October 2014 at the South Bronx Academy for Applied Media, according to the Department of Education. The Post reports that the teacher, 26-year veteran Alexiss Nazario, showed the students the clip in a technology class during a lesson about Iraq and ISIS—while the actual beheading was blacked out, students told investigators the video showed the man's severed head atop his chest.
"I’m scared at what I just saw. Ms. Nazario showed a beheading video and I was really scared," one student told school staffers, according to investigators. Another student told investigators, "It was gross." Students also said Nazario told them, "This is what’s going on in the real world.”," while the video played.
Nazario initially told investigators the students had chosen the video, but later admitted she had played it in error. She told the Post, "I was scrolling looking for a specific video. I clicked on the wrong thing. It was a mistake. It was an error. I freaked out. I had no idea that was playing."
The DOE says they initially wanted to fire Nazario, who was reassigned immediately following the incident. In the end, though, Nazario admitted she'd made a mistake by neither previewing the video nor getting permission to show it, and thanks to her previously spotless record she was fined only $300.
"This teacher demonstrated a complete lack of judgment, and this incident betrayed our schools' promise to provide a safe and supportive environment," DOE spokesperson Devora Kaye told us in a statement. "We sought to terminate this teacher's employment on the recommendation of the Special Commissioner of Investigation, and ultimately followed the decision of the independent arbitrator."
