Teacher Fired After Venting in Viral TikTok About Being ‘Disrespected’

A Texas elementary school teacher took to TikTok to vent about criticism of her performance — and wound up losing her job after the video went viral, she said.

The impetus for Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy, a first-year educator teaching third grade at Austin’s Becker Elementary School, to create the video came during a March meeting with a school administrator that DeLoretto-Chudy thought would address challenges of the job.

“The whole meeting just felt just incredibly demoralizing,” DeLoretto-Chudy told local outlet KEYE. “She did not once ask me how I was doing, if I enjoyed teaching, if I needed any support.”

Instead, DeLoretto-Chudy told FOX7, she was given a “list of concerns,” which she said left her feeling “disrespected.”

They included doing a book study on Harry Potter, taking too long to respond to emails and her students sitting for the Pledge of Allegiance.

The latter issue was the largest sticking point and sprang from a lesson on the Holocaust, DeLoretto-Chudy told KEYE.

During that lesson, she said, students drew connections between nationalism and propaganda, leading them to decide to protest the pledge.

“So, I explained all that to my assistant principal, and she didn't buy it,” DeLoretto-Chudy told KEYE. “She didn't believe that they would be able to make the decision on their own.”

That night, DeLoretto-Chudy made what she called an “emotionally-charged decision” to take her concerns to TikTok.

“My favorite amongst them [the administrator’s concerns] is ‘We’ve noticed an intentional attempt at teaching your students about their legal and constitutional rights,’” said DeLoretto-Chudy in the video, pointing to the passage on a printed and annotated list of the issues. “That’s the concern. … Why is it a concern?”

The video, all of 45 seconds, blew up overnight.

"I fell asleep, and I woke up the next morning, and it had 1.5 million views," DeLoretto-Chudy told FOX7.

DeLoretto-Chudy was placed on administrative leave the day after she posted the video and ultimately fired, with administrators citing the district’s social media policy.

“It didn't have anything to do with my instructional practices or what I was teaching or how I was teaching,” she told FOX7. “And it had everything to do with the fact that I had embarrassed one of my administrators on TikTok.”

In a statement to KEYE, the Austin Independent School District said that it “does not comment on personnel matters."