Colleyville teacher resigns after saying conservative Christians need ‘to get COVID and die’
A Colleyville Middle School teacher resigned from her position Thursday after a video captured her in the school hallway saying conservative Christians need “to get COVID and die.”
A spokesperson for the district identified the teacher Thursday afternoon as Lisa Grimes, who taught eighth grade discoveries and English language arts. She had been placed on administrative leave on Wednesday.
Grimes could not immediately be reached for comment.
The video, posted by an account called CriticalRaceTheory, to the Canadian video platform Rumble, was taken at Colleyville Middle School.
In the video, Grimes is seen chatting with two other women in a hallway about vaccines and her frustration with how they’ve become political.
Grimes said COVID vaccines were being given out the same way flu vaccines are, and said that if they had been given out immediately, the virus would be gone.
“The rest of my life is impacted because of politics?” Grimes said. “Because of conservative Christian crap?
“I’m telling you, those conservative Christian people, they need to die, they need to get COVID and die.”
In a note to parents Wednesday, the Grapevine-Colleyville school district said Grimes’ statements don’t reflect the views of the school district or middle school.
School board president Jorge Rodriguez said in a statement sent by the school district that the board rejected Grimes’ statements and that it supported the decision to place her on administrative leave.
An update from the district Thursday afternoon said it is working to make sure there’s no disruption to students’ learning.
“This incident should not overshadow the many heights that Colleyville Middle School students reach every day or the tireless work of teachers at Colleyville Middle School and across GCISD,” an email statement from the school district read.
In November, former Colleyville Heritage High School principal James Whitfield came under criticism after he was accused of teaching and promoting Critical Race Theory. Whitfield, hired in 2020, was the school’s first Black principal and left the school district in November after reaching a settlement with the school district.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 2:18 PM.
