Greg Pittman,
an American history teacher at Stoneman Douglas, is under investigation by the Broward County School District for remarks he allegedly made in class comparing pro-Second Amendment student Kyle Kashuv to Adolph Hitler, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Friday.
For a guy with apparently impeccable liberal credentials, the news that he’s on the receiving end of a school district inquiry has to be pretty devastating news. After all, the Sun-Sentinel describes him as an “outspoken gun control advocate” and his Twitter bio brags about joining in the students’ “March for Our Lives” demonstration last month in Washington. How could he be in the wrong?
But maybe he should have thought about the consequences before reportedly calling Kashuv the “next Hitler.”
At least three students said they’d heard Pittman make the remarks during a class discussion, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Kashuv was not in the classroom at the time.
According to Fox News, a junior who was in the class recalled the wording a bit differently, but did describe the discussion as “hate fest.”
“They were just saying means things about Kyle,” the student said. “He (Pittman) talked about how he was right, and how Kyle was making an ass of himself. He did say he ‘was the Hitler type.’ I don’t really know what that means exactly, but I think he was just being crazy.”
In a Twitter post Thursday, Kashuv pointed out one particularly disturbing aspect of Pittman’s comments.
“My grandfather was one of the only survivors of the holocaust out of his entire family, and now a teacher is calling me the next Hitler because I have different political views,” he wrote.
Both Fox and the Sun-Sentinel said Pittman did not respond to requests for comment, but the Sun-Sentinel confirmed the school district is looking into the situation.
“School leaders take all matters involving students and staff seriously,” Nadine Drew, a Broward Schools spokeswoman, told the Sun-Sentinel. “They are aware of the allegations and are looking into the matter.”