A high school art teacher in Dallas posted an Instagram video of herself "shooting" an image of Donald Trump with a squirt gun and screaming "die" during Friday's inauguration. A copy of the video went viral on Twitter before the original source was identified.
The teacher has since deleted the video, but here's a copy:
The video was captioned with "Watching the #inauguration in my classroom like.... #no #stop #denial #squirtgun #hypocrisy #powerless #saveusall #teachthembetter #atleastitsfriday".
It's unclear if there were students in the classroom at the time and it is also unclear as to who took the video. It was posted by the teacher on her personal Instagram. According to Gateway Pundit, the Secret Service is aware of the video.
It goes without saying that this is entirely inappropriate for a teacher to do in a classroom, especially if students were present. If a person wants to do stuff like this in the privacy of their own home, they're free to do that. I don't agree with that and think it's relatively immature, but they're still free to do it. A classroom, however, is a whole different scenario. A teacher is supposed to mentor students and provide an example for them to follow. Screaming "die" and shooting a water gun repeatedly at a projection of the president is not a good example, and she really should have known better.
This teacher's behavior is not normal, even in the era of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Screeching "die!" and repeatedly firing a squirt gun--heck, even having an easy-available squirt gun--are not normal behaviors and are not appropriate ways of coping with the results of the election. This wouldn't be acceptable to do to any political candidate, be it George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump.
Watching this video made me think back to my own high school years, and how my teachers treated the election. I was a senior in high school when Barack Obama was elected in 2008. He was inaugurated during my finals week, so my school had half days for students. Even though I wasn't an Obama fan in the slightest, I still snuck into a classroom with my friend Sara when exams were finished and we stayed late to watch the new president be inaugurated. I sat there respectfully, with a few of my teachers, and watched the 44th president be sworn in. One of my teachers was very emotional and began crying tears of joy. Nobody heckled the television nor made any kind of celebratory cheer of joy--and there certainly weren't any squirt guns--which is how things should be. I'm sad that the students in this classroom (if there were any present) weren't able to have this kind of experience. The inauguration of a president is a historic event, regardless of who is being inaugurated.
This post has been updated.