California mom reacts to teacher berating students over in-person learning

Kimberly Imhoff joins ‘Fox News Primetime’ to discuss teacher caught on video saying ‘I dare your parents to come at me’

A California mom spoke out Monday against “upsetting” videos of a local high school teacher berating students over their parents’ collective push to end remote learning and return children to their classrooms full-time. 

In a video obtained by Fox News, San Marcos High School teacher Alissa Piro can be heard raising her voice at a virtual classroom of juniors, daring their parents to “come at me” over their movement.

“It was upsetting and actually pretty shocking” Kimberly Imhoff told “Fox News Primetime.” “Whether our kids are in the classroom or they’re on a Zoom call, we’re putting our kids in the care of the teachers and we’re expecting that they’re going to be treated with respect and courtesy, and that’s clearly not what was going on during that particular Zoom class,” she said.

In one widely circulated video, Piro, who teaches English, appears to be referencing an ongoing lawsuit by a coalition of parents against Gov. Gavin Newsom and six North Country school districts seeking eased COVID restrictions and an accelerated return to physical classrooms, though local unions say doing so would constitute judicial overreach. 

“If your parent wants to talk to me about their profession and their opinion on their profession, I would love to hear that …,” Piro says.

“However, if your parent wants to come talk to me about how I’m not doing a good enough job in distance learning based on what you need as an individual? Just dare them to come at me. Because I am so sick to my stomach of parents trying to tell educators how to do their job.”

The video was filmed by a family member of a student in attendance and was shared to a private Facebook group aimed at reopening schools in the district before being obtained by Fox News. After more than a year of remote learning, the district recently agreed to a hybrid model which allows students to attend in-person learning two days a week. The local union reportedly voted to keep the hybrid model for the duration of the school year, outraging parents and students anxious to return to in-person instruction.

“I think the majority of teachers do want to return,” Imhoff said. “What we’re seeing here is the school unions, that are very powerful, who have other agendas speaking, I think out of turn for the teachers.”

Imhoff said that while there are “some outliers like possibly the video we just saw,” she regularly hears from teachers who support resuming in-person instruction full time. 

 At the end of the day, Imhoff said she believes it’s a “lack of leadership at the district level and a battle with the union that’s keeping our kids from the classroom.”

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