CITRUS COUNTY, Florida — A Florida social studies teacher has been "removed" from the classroom after being accused in a recent Huffington Post article of having a white nationalist podcast and secretly bringing her beliefs into the classroom.
Dayanna Volitich has worked at Crystal River Middle School in Citrus County since 2016, but online she used the pseudonym Tiana Dalichov.
"I get to talk about topics that people don't like to talk about. They don't want to be seen as a bigot, racist, whatever you want to call it. I honestly don't care," said Volitich.
That's a snippet from the podcast "Unapologetic" previewing the topics listeners can expect to hear.
The Huffington Post article says the podcast is actually hosted by the 25-year-old Volitich. In one of her podcasts, she talks about putting on a "dog and pony show" for administrators during her first year, when it comes to teaching certain curriculum.
"I told the kids that. I said, 'Guys, when they are in here, I’m going to be different than I usually am. I just don’t want you to be shocked. I want you to play along and they’re like, 'OK. OK,'" she said in the podcast.
During that same podcast, Volitich brings up a science fair project from Sacramento that was taken down after she says people deemed it racist. She tells her guest she believes it scientifically proves certain races have higher IQs than others. When her guest asks if kids tell their parents what they learn in class, she says the principal approached her over an email from a parent once, but dropped it.
"I had one at the beginning of this year who emailed the principal over my head and basically told her I’m worried that your teacher is injecting political bias into her teaching. And the principal came to me and she was like, 'I’m not worried, should I be worried?' And I was like, 'No.' She believed me and she backed off."
Scripps stations WFTS stopped by Volitich's apartment to talk with her, but no one answered the door. A neighbor said he recognizes her by the photo showed to him, but said he rarely spoke with her.
The Huffington Post took screen shots of things Volitich posted to Twitter in the past, talking about her fascination of the "Jewish Question" an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. She also posted a picture of a book by Kevin MacDonald, saying "the JQ is incredibly complex" and that her mind is "already blown" while reading the book.
WFTS searched for her account, but it's no longer active and could not find her on Facebook.
WFTS found an article published two weeks ago on Halsey News titled, "Tiana Dalichov: White Privilege Challenge." The writer was promoting her new podcast and encouraging people to write-in arguments proving "one single instance of white privilege," arguing it doesn't exist, and if someone can prove it they will get $100.
Posting as Tiana Dalichov on goodreads.com, Volitich writes that she has a BA in American History from The Ohio State University.
On a YouTube Channel called "Right Millennial," Dalichov appears on video and looks substantially similar to Volitich’s official school photo. In the video, Volitich discusses her degree in “brain sciences,” using the same vernacular that was written on the goodreads.com page. She also discusses how she is an author that has written many books that sell on Amazon.com.
A pinned comment from the Channel’s Creator posted over the weekend, tacitly confirms The Huffington Post article by denying that she outed Volitich, and by suggesting that she did it to herself by, “spout[ing] propaganda from self[-]admitted Holocaust deniers and then block[ing] Halsey, and I when we called her out on it." The video is now unavailable.
On social media, people from around the country have asked the school district to fire her. A Facebook page has been created asking people to submit emails to school officials.
WFTS called and left messages with several school board members, the middle school principal and employees at the district level but have not heard back.
Huffington Post says after reaching out for comment from the school district, Executive Director of Educational Services for the Citrus County School District Scott Hebert told them, "The views she’s listed are really not in line with how our district operates."
Hebert said they will be looking into her statements to see if they violate the code of ethics policy.
