In a TikTok posted on Thursday by @teacherslovehumour, a teacher with her mask pulled down beneath her chin and intentionally breathes on a student. Because the student’s back is against a classroom wall, she can’t distance herself from the teacher.
“I don’t care,” the teacher says. The student asks her to get out of her face. The teacher responds, “You get out mine” and tells the student, “Make me.”
The Daily Mail reported that the incident took place on Sept. 17 at Mead Middle School in Houston. Mead is part of Aldine Independent School District, one of 29 schools that are suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for banning mask mandates in schools, the Texas Tribune reports.
In a statement provided to the Daily Mail, Aldine Independent School District said that the teacher shown in the video was “removed from the classroom.”
“The district will take appropriate administrative action,” based on an investigation of the teacher’s “unacceptable” behavior.
Many in the comments of @teacherslovehumour’s video asked if the teacher’s actions would be considered a hate crime.
The Department of Justice has not directly answered this question, but a March 2020 memo from the department obtained by Politico categorizes COVID as a “biological agent.”
The memo states that acts such as “purposeful exposure and infections of others with COVID 19” could be prosecuted using the country’s “terrorism related statutes.” In other words, Politico reported, “those who intentionally spread coronavirus could be charged as terrorists.”
It is unclear if the teacher had COVID-19 when she breathed on the student. According to Aldine Independent School District’s COVID-19 protocols for the 2021-22 school year, staff members are not required to be vaccinated. They are, however, required to wear face coverings in all of the district’s buildings, complete “daily self-screening” for symptoms, stay home if they are sick.
The Aldine School District didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via the contact form on its website.
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H/T Daily Mail