The high school student who recorded his teacher going on an anti-military rant has received threats. Patrick Healy reports for the NBC4 News at 11 on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018.
The El Rancho Unified school board held a public meeting Tuesday to discuss the status of teacher Gregory Salcido, who's also a Pico Rivera councilman and who criticized the U.S. military and its members in class recently.
At least one hundred people were in attendance to demand for Salcido's termination. In attendance was the student who recorded the rant, Victor Quinonez.
"I really do appreciate all the support," Victor said.
The student has been receiving threats and hate messages, according to his family.
"I can't walk outside anymore," Quinonez said.
The boy's father spoke before the audience to call for Salcido's termination.
"It's sad that my son has had to go through this," Vincent Quinonez, a Marine Corps veteran, said.
The meeting took place in the El Rancho High School gym to accommodate an expected large crowd. It's scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. at 6501 Passons Blvd.
School board President Aurora Villon anticipated that people wanting to speak to the board about Salcido, who is on administrative leave while the district investigates several videos in which he makes controversial remarks about the military.
A special board meeting last week was held in the district's professional development center. The room overflowed with people who wanted to comment on Salcido's in-class anti-military tirade, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported. Villon said people were "upset because there was not room for them to sit down or even get inside the room. It was so crowded."
The controversy began when a 17-year-old student recorded Salcido, his teacher, criticizing him for wearing a sweatshirt that said "U.S. Marines Corps." Salcido is heard on the video, which has been viewed by millions, saying that only people without options would choose the military as a career, calling them "lowest of the low." He also described members of the military as "dumbs---s."
"I think the guy ought to go to hell," White House chief of staff John Kelly, a former U.S. Marine Corps general, said about Salcido during an interview on Fox News Radio. "I just hope he enjoys the liberties and the lifestyle that we have fought for."
