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Last Friday during Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Adamson High School teacher Payal Modi decided to take out her frustrations on a video projection of the ceremony. Armed with a water pistol, Modi took on the leader of the free world, pointing and squirting her gun at the president’s image while screaming “Die! Die! Die!” in front of a laughing audience.
Modi decided to post a video of this to her (now private) Instagram account with the following caption: “Watching the #inauguration in my classroom like….#no #stop #denial #squirtgun #hypocrisy #powerless #saveusall #teachthembetter #atleastitsfriday.” Despite the caption, it isn’t clear from the video whether the audience for her mock assassination are students.
Modi’s video began making the rounds on conservative media Wednesday night. By midday Thursday, Dallas ISD confirmed that Modi, who did not respond to an interview request made via social media, was the woman in the video, issuing a statement: “Today, we were made aware of a social media posting being circulated involving a teacher at W. H. Adamson High School. The teacher has been placed on administrative leave and the district has opened an investigation. This is a personnel matter and, as such, we can not comment.”
