Florida school district suspends teacher who hosted white nationalist podcast, bragged of indoctrinating students

Teacher in Florida suspended due to white nationalist podcast — (Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/NBC News)

On Sunday, Florida's Citrus County School District suspended Dayanna Volitich, a first-year social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School who hosts a podcast that espouses white nationalist views. Voltich, who used the pseudonym "Tiana Dalichov" on her Unapologetic podcast, talked about spreading her white supremacist views in class while putting on a "dog-and-pony show" for school administrators to avoid detection. HuffPost connected Dalichov with Volitich last week, and the school district cited a "concerning podcast" in announcing that Volitich was being "removed from the classroom" pending an investigation.

After HuffPost started inquiring about Volitich, 25, last Friday, "Dalichov" said on Twitter that she "might disappear for a while," then took down her podcasts and deleted her Twitter account. In podcasts and screenshots saved by HuffPost, Dalichov says the "Jewish Question" is "incredibly complex," while praising the work of anti-Semitic author Kevin MacDonald — the "Jewish Question" is "an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people have undue influence over the media, banking and politics that must somehow be addressed," HuffPost explains — pushes for Muslims to be eradicated, argues that "science" shows some races have higher IQs, and defends neo-Nazis and white supremacists like Arthur Jones and David Duke.

In a statement released by her lawyer, Volitich confirms that she is Dalichov but says she merely "employed political satire and exaggeration, mainly to the end of attracting listeners and followers," and denies being a white nationalist or white supremacist, or teaching those views in class.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.