Virginia teacher suspended after reportedly making pro-Russia comments amid war with Ukraine

A substitute instructor at an Arlington, Virginia, center college has been suspended for reportedly making pro-Russia feedback amid the Russia-Ukraine warfare.

Arlington Public Colleges spokesperson Frank Bellavia confirmed to Fox Information Digital that John Stanton, 65, of Swanson Center College “has been suspended for the rest of the 12 months.”

“As a result of it’s a personnel matter, I can’t present some other particulars,” Bellavia mentioned in an electronic mail.

Stanton instructed The Washington Publish, which first reported on his suspension, that he spoke in regards to the Ukraine-Russia warfare for the primary 10 minutes of an hour-and-a-half-long Spanish lesson final Friday and mentioned he was attempting to current college students with a unique viewpoint.

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“I mentioned, ‘Right here’s what’s happening,’” Stanton instructed the outlet, including that the assertion he thinks acquired him in bother was when he mentioned, “‘I personally assist the logic of Putin.’”

“[W]hat I meant by that’s, he made a rational determination from his notion,” Stanton instructed Publish.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Kremlin, in Moscow on Feb. 14, 2022. (Photograph by Alexei NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP by way of Getty Pictures)

Dad and mom mentioned in an electronic mail to the Arlington college board that Stanton’s feedback to college students expressing assist for Russia and asking if anybody “hated” the nation was “Russian propaganda” and “advocacy of political positions,” in line with the Publish.

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The substitute instructor, who mentioned he at present writes for Russian state newspaper Pravda — the previous official newspaper of the previous Soviet Union’s Communist Occasion — additionally reportedly inspired college students to learn shops like Sputnik, a Russian state information web site.

His resume shared with the publish additionally mentioned he labored as a researcher for the American Enterprise Institute, hosted a “political/cultural radio program” in D.C. within the Eighties and labored as an “unbiased journalist.”

The Ukrainian nationwide flag is seen in entrance of a college which, in line with native residents, was on fireplace after shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022. (REUTERS/Vitaliy Gnidyi)

A Feb. 28 op-ed from Stanton printed by Pravda states that the U.S. owns “each nation” in NATO, and that the West’s efforts to supply “anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons” to Ukraine is “nice information” for Western Protection Contractors. He additionally wrote that “the one option to type an opinion” in regards to the Russia-Ukraine battle “is to view as a lot from Russian and Western sources as is humanly doable.”

“Any assist aired by anybody on the West for the Russian place will get mauled and derided by pro-West pundits,” he wrote. Stanton additionally known as the 2014 Ukraine-Russia battle ensuing within the annexation of Crimea a “US sponsored coup in Ukraine.”

Stanton instructed the Publish that whereas he understands why his temporary lesson to center college college students about totally different opinions on the Ukraine-Russia warfare is inappropriate, he mentioned that if he may attain “one pupil” who needed to be taught extra, he “would do it once more.”