Middle-Schooler Secretly Records Teacher, Exposes Her Mocking of Trump-Supporting Parents
Parents, be very aware of whom you’re turning your children over to, particularly at public schools. It could be someone like Ann Cook.
Cook is a resource-room instructor at Gray-New Gloucester Middle School in Gray, Maine. She’s managed to go bad-viral after local news outlet The Maine Wire published a five-minute audio recording on Sunday of her mocking supporters of former President Donald Trump, calling a student’s relatives uneducated for voting for him.
The Maine Wire also said the teacher made “several questionable or outright false claims about Trump, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris.”
The audio was reportedly recorded in April by an eighth-grade student at the school who was alarmed about some of his interactions with Cook. Previous conversations reportedly involved her sexuality, as well as that of her students.
The first minute of the recording involves Cook praising Harris’ time as a prosecutor in California, including “putting pedophiles behind bars” (now there’s a brave position for a prosecutor to take) and offering new, progressive opportunities for drug offenders. (Tulsi Gabbard might want to have a word with Cook about that.)
Cook then went on to say that “Trump has a degree from a college — a very, very low-level college — and he was a very poor student.”
As we all know, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania — Trump’s alma mater — is pretty much America’s safety school. Sure, it’s Ivy League, but it’s not like it’s Ivy Ivy League, if you get my drift. It’s certainly not the University of Delaware, Joe Biden’s undergraduate alma mater.
She went on to say that “if people want to admire [Trump] — I don’t know why — but it wouldn’t mean that I would dislike somebody.”
“Just because somebody’s wearing a Trump hat, I would think to myself, ‘There’s somebody who needs to be educated.’ But I wouldn’t hate them or call them names,” Cook continued.
Clearly not. She then went on to belittle the student’s parents because they supported Trump.
“Your father and stepfather are just caught up in the propaganda,” Cook said. “They believe the lies. And that’s the whole point of lying is that people believe it just ’cause you say it.”
You know, like when you lie and say Trump went to “a very, very low-level college” or insinuate, as she did earlier in the rant, that “he doesn’t pay taxes.”
“I pay taxes, but he doesn’t pay taxes, because he cheats the system,” Cook said.
“He’s a liar and a cheater and he’s not that smart,” she said in a moment of profound projection. “And apparently he’s not that nice either.”
Toward the end of the rant, Cook managed to get racial as well: “Gas prices went up because Russia invaded Ukraine, and rich white men are afraid they’re not going to be making” as much money, she said.
On Monday, school board chairman Sam Pfeifle told the Maine Wire he was “disappointed” in Cook’s propagandizing.
“It’s clearly unacceptable for a teacher to be saying those things to students in their classroom,” he said.
“It doesn’t follow our controversial topics policy,” Pfeifle said. “I don’t think it follows our mission. I don’t think it’s kind.”
“We try to lead with love and kindness,” he added.
The Maine Wire said Pfeifle couldn’t disclose what disciplinary action Cook faced, if any, because of privacy laws. However, after talking with the school principal and district superintendent, he said, “I’m satisfied that our administration followed all the policies.”
Gray-New Gloucester Middle School Principal Rick Riley-Benoit said he’d had a discussion with the child’s parent after the audio leaked.
“As per our policy regarding parent complaints, I met with the teacher privately to discuss the parent’s concern,” Riley-Benoit said in an email.
“I also reviewed the MSAD 15 policy IMB: Teaching About Controversial/Sensitive Issues. I believe the teacher and I came to an agreement on expectations,” Riley-Benoit said.
“I trust our teachers are thoughtful in monitoring their own subjectivity in conversations with students,” he added.
In other words, Cook will remain in her position despite the fact she’s apparently a propaganda spigot of epic proportions. Sleep easy, Gray-New Gloucester Middle School parents.
“Because this is a personnel matter, I cannot comment on specific details,” Riley-Benoit said.
“What I can say is that we take the appropriateness of interactions between our staff and our students very seriously. When we investigate and verify concerns in this area, we take appropriate steps to address such matters,” he added.
Wonderful. This is how low-standard public school educators so often protect their own: When something like this leaks, there are “conversations,” “appropriate steps” and “agreements” — not terminations. Sometimes, there’s even recrimination against the student for recording a teacher.
Little wonder that some districts want to ban phones from the classroom; one gets the idea it’s not that they’re a distraction, but the fact they can document what liberal teachers are trying to force-feed their charges when they’re supposed to be, you know, actually educating them.
Don’t believe for a second that this is isolated, either. There are thousands of Ann Cooks across America. Most of them just don’t get caught with their hand in the propaganda jar.
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