Teacher suspended from classroom after reports she hosted 'white nationalist podcast'

A Florida school teacher has been removed from the classroom following reports that she hosted a white supremacist podcast in her spare time.

Dayanna Volitich, a social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School in Florida, was identified by the Huffington Post as the host of white supremacist podcast “Unapologetic,” where she argued that some races are smarter than others and bragged about bringing white supremacist views into the classroom under the pseudonym “Tiana Dalichov”.

Citrus County School District announced shortly after the article was published that the teacher had been barred from the classroom, pending a formal investigation.

“The Human Resources department was notified and an investigation was initiated immediately,” superintendent Sandra Himmel said in a statement. “The teacher has been removed from the classroom and the investigation is ongoing.”

But Ms Volitich denied being a white nationalist or white supremacist in a statement to New Channel 8, claiming that the opinions voiced on her podcast were satire.

“While operating under the Russian pseudonym ‘Tiana Dalichov’ on social media and the Unapologetic Podcast, I employed political satire and exaggeration, mainly to the end of attracting listeners and followers, and generating conversation about the content discussed between myself and my guests,” she said. “The views ‘Tiana Dalichov’ espouses do not pervade my professional career.”

Ms Volitich referred to her podcast as a “hobby,” and denied bringing her political beliefs into her teaching.

The 25-year-old has since deleted all social media accounts connected to both “Dayanna Volitich” and “Tiana Dalichov”. According to the Citrus County Chronicle, she had garnered nearly 1,4000 Twitter followers before removing her account.

The Twitter account for “Tiana Dalichov" regularly espoused white supremacist views, according to screenshots published by the Huffington Post. Among other things, she appears to have tweeted that “it isn’t supremacist or hateful to prefer your own people over others,” and argued that systemic racism is not real.

In a recent episode of her podcast, obtained by the Chronicle, “Dalichov” said: "I would pretty much say, yeah, OK, if believing that certain races specialise in certain things makes me racist then I guess that’s what I am."

In another episode, she recalled how her school principal once confronted her about complaints that she brought her “political bias in the classroom”. She said she lied to her principal, claiming she had done no such thing.

“She believed me and backed off,” "Dalichov" said.