A Long Island science teacher has been placed on leave after posting on social media that she wished “all Trump supporters” would choke while drinking and “suffer long” before dying.
Pamila Pahuja of R.C. Murphy Junior High School made the comments on January 22. “We are prisoners of the government. Only a matter of time before they come for all women,” she wrote. Then she expressed the hope that the next time those who backed Trump “take a drink” that “it doesn’t swallow right and you go to get help but no one is there and you slowly wither away while struggling to gasp and you suffer long.” “That’s what you want for people you deem not worthy right?”, she added. “Don’t worry, I’ll pray for it to last longer.”
In a letter dated January 26, Murphy JHS Principal Michael Jantzen wrote that Pahuja “will be out of school until further notice.” He offered nothing further other than assuring parents a “smooth transition and continued high-quality instruction in science.”
According to the local teachers union website, Pahuja’s parents both were teachers, and she claims “teaching is…in my blood.” She earns about $165,000 per year.
Pahuja is employed by the Three Village Central School District. News-12 reports that parents in the school district differ on how the school district should respond to Pahuja’s remarks.
“I have a child in the school, people can feel however they want to feel, like or dislike any character who’s running for office – but I read the post, it was too far,” said one parent. Another parents said, “teachers should be on the safer side about not posting on social media. I think they should keep politics out of the classroom.”
But another parent argued that what Pahuja “does in her own time is her business.” “Everybody’s overlooking everybody else, everybody has their own opinions,” she said.
On Facebook, Pahuja’s page features a transgender-flag heart.
If Pahuja had merely wished that Donald Trump would die, that would be protected by the First Amendment, because in 1985, the Supreme Court said a public employer could not punish an employee who said about Ronald Reagan after an assassin attempted to kill him, “If they go for him again, I hope they get him.” (See Rankin v. McPherson (1987)).
But it’s a different thing to hate all people who backed Trump and wish them harm, including high-school students who support Trump but still need to be graded fairly. When teachers have beliefs that could lead them to harm their students, the First Amendment does not prevent a school district from taking action, as the federal appeals court with jurisdiction over Long Island ruled in Melzer v. Board of Education (2003), which allowed a school district to discharge a teacher who was a member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association.
