California teacher Gregory Salcido was fired after he was caught on video bashing the military during class in January, the El Rancho Unified School District superintendent told KNBC-TV Tuesday.
Salcido was terminated from his position after a two-month investigation of the incident in which he was heard on the recording criticizing a student wearing a U.S. Marine Corps T-shirt and making negative comments about the military, the television station reported.
"We've got a bunch of dumb s**** over there,'' Salcido allegedly could be heard saying in the recording during the teacher's government class, according to KNBC-TV. "Think about the people who you know who are over there — your freaking stupid Uncle Louie or whatever — they're dumb.
"They're not like high-level thinkers, they're not academic people, they're not intellectual people. They're the freaking lowest of our low," Salcido, who also serves on Pico Rivera city council, continued.
Victor Quinonez told KABC-TV that he secretly recorded the rant and was the student Salcido allegedly berated for wearing the Marines sweatshirt in class.
"The classroom should never be a place where students feel that they are picked at, bullied, intimidated," Aurora Villon, president of the district's board of education, told the Los Angeles Times. "His comments do not reflect what we stand for, who we are."
The video, which has since gone viral on social media, even reached the White House. President Donald Trump's chief of staff, former U.S. Marine Corps general John Kelly told Fox News Radio that Salcido "ought to go to hell. I just hope he enjoys the liberties and the lifestyle that we have fought for."
Salcido said that he and has family have received death threats since the video made its way to social media, according to CNN.
"If this situation caused a problem, I certainly do apologize for it," Salcido said at a city council meeting last month, CNN said. "If anything I've said has hurt somebody it was unintentional.
"I don't think the people in the military have low moral character. I think people in the military or students who look into the military are lower standing students. That's not a moral judgment on them," Salcido said, per CNN.
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