Parkland teacher under fire for allegedly calling pro-Second Amendment student Kyle Kashuv ‘Hitler’ in class

close

Video

Kyle Kashuv Talks Going to Gun Range, School Interrogation

Kyle Kashuv Talks Going to Gun Range, School Interrogation

Officials at the Florida school where 17 students were gunned down during a mass shooting on Valentine's Day are investigating allegations a teacher compared pro-Second Amendment student Kyle Kashuv to "Hitler" and called him "dangerous."

The comments were allegedly made by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School American history teacher Gregory Pittman, an outspoken gun control advocate. Pittman's reported remarks came after photos posted to social media showed Kashuv visiting a gun range with his father.

“School leaders take all matters involving students and staff seriously,” Broward County Public Schools spokeswoman Nadine Drew told Fox News. “They are aware of the allegations and are looking into the matter.”

Kashuv, a junior, posted a photo and video from his first time shooting a gun with his father, a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, on Twitter last Friday. He told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that photo led to an interrogation from a school official and a report from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, which found the tweets to be “non-threatening.”

Pittman and Kashuv went back and forth on Twitter, where the teacher said it was “bad” for Kashuv to hold a gun and said Kashuv was just doing it to get “attention.” During a class discussion days later, Pittman allegedly began disparaging Kashuv, who was not present.

A junior who witnessed the rant told Fox News that Pittman “was a bit angry” and launched into a tirade Wednesday during the last 10 minutes of class after one student brought up the Twitter exchange.

“It was basically a hate fest,” the student said. “They were just saying means things about Kyle. He talked about how he was right, and how Kyle was making an ass of himself. He did say he 'was the Hitler type.' I don’t really know what that means exactly, but I think he was just being crazy.”

The teacher allegedly also called Kashuv “dangerous.”

Though Kashuv was not in class that day, he responded to the controversy on Twitter.

“I find it utterly vile that he’d call a Jew the next Hitler,” said Kashuv, whose family emigrated from Israel in the 1990s. “It’s also quite telling that he doesn’t know that Hitler took the people’s weaponry and I want more law-abiding citizens to have firearms."

Pittman did not respond to requests for comment.