An Austin ISD elementary school teacher has been fired after posting a viral TikTok about a meeting she recently had with administrators. Sophia DeLoretto-Chudy, a first-year third-grade teacher at Austin's Becker Elementary School, was called into a meeting with the principal in March to discuss several concerns administrators had with her style of teaching. Among those listed in a memo included the fact that DeLoretto-Chudy allowed students to do a book study on Harry Potter and sit for the Pledge of Allegiance.
"It just felt like a very demoralizing meeting," DeLoretto-Chudy told FOX 7 Austin. "I think that's really the word for it, where I didn't feel supported, and I felt disrespected." Following the meeting, DeLoretto-Chudy took to TikTok to note that school administrators said they were also concerned about her "intentional attempt in teaching your students about their legal and constitutional rights."
"Why is that a concern?" DeLoretto-Chudy questioned in the 45-second clip, which has since garnered 3 million views. The day after it was posted, DeLoretto-Chudy was put on administrative leave. "I had my badge taken away," she told FOX 7. "I was locked out of all the apps, and was not allowed to communicate with anybody."
The district told FOX 7 that DeLoretto-Chudy had violated the AISD social media policy by posting the TikTok. Per the employee handbook, if an employee's use of electronic communication interferes with the employee's ability to perform his or her duties, it could lead to termination. However, DeLoretto-Chudy disagrees.
"They made it clear that it wasn't," DeLoretto-Chudy told FOX 7. "It didn't have anything to do with my instructional practices or what I was teaching or how I was teaching. And it had everything to do with the fact that I had embarrassed one of my administrators on TikTok."
Warning: Video contains explicit language.
In a follow-up TikTok posted last week, a tearful DeLoretto-Chudy said she won't be able to finish out the year with her students because she didn't go through the appropriate channels to file a grievance. "It just feels so f--king wrong. It feels so wrong. I f--king love these kids," she said in the video. "I would die for them."
DeLoretto-Chudy said she plans to continue to advocate for Texas teachers at the Capitol. Other clips posted to her TikTok account depict the teacher speaking out to Texas lawmakers during the recent legislative session, including against House Bill 3—which would appoint an armed guard to every public school campus; and Senate Bill 13—a bill aimed at keeping alleged sexually explicit content off school bookshelves. "So often I was the only teacher in the room giving testimony on policies that would affect teachers directly in the classroom," she told FOX 7.