Student Claims Teacher Called Him 'Moron' As Leaked Zoom Call Of Her Berating Students Went Viral

Some of the California high school students spoke up Monday after a leaked video of their teacher berating them during two separate virtual classes went viral over the weekend.

In a video, San Marcos High School teacher Alissa Piro can be seen losing her temper at a virtual classroom of juniors, daring their parents to "come at me" over their collective request to end remote learning.

In another video, Piro can be heard yelling at a student who inquired about a "White student union."

"You don't need a White student union, Jace. You get everything," the teacher says.

The student, Jace Jonas, told Fox News Monday that Piro reacted that way after reading a question that he wrote in the Zoom chat box after the school announced the creation of an Asian student union.

"I wanted to make a comment in the Zoom text box, not disrupting the class. I commented 'why do some races get student unions but others do not?' We should have a student union for all races or no races for true equality," he said.

Piro was frustrated with Jace. She paused her lesson before shouting "Goddammnit" in front of the student and his peers, he said.

"She started berating me about how as a White male I get everything and it's my duty to look out for minorities and all these racist remarks against Whites and males. She later called me a moron."

Commenting on the video, one mother said, "My daughter's friend had sent the recorded video to her the morning it happened and she showed it to me. Because of our history with this teacher, I knew I needed to speak out with the abuse and bullying and frankly racism that I saw on that video."

"The saddest thing to me is that she created an environment in that Zoom classroom for some of the other students to comment mean things..."

Jace and his father Jim Jonas informed the assistant principal Kelley Brown about it. Jim described Piro as "unhinged." "I don't know what school she got her degree at, but maybe she can get her money back," he added.

Along with Jim, three other parents reported the matter to the school and the district. Following the incident, Jace was allowed to skip Piro's class for five days. Before he joined back, Jace and his father sat down with Piro and Principal Adam Dawson for a "restorative meeting" during which he said Piro apologized.

Despite this, Jace's father was surprised to find that his son's grade in Piro's class had dropped weeks later. Piro blamed a computer error and later corrected it. The district said in a statement that Piro had been put on administrative leave pending investigation. School officials were "deeply concerned" about Piro's behavior, but vowed to uphold her "due process and privacy rights" while the investigation continues, the statement added.

Meanwhile, a study revealed that virtual school resulted in "significant" academic learning loss, CNBC reported last month. It's been over a year since schools were shut down and distance learning was encouraged amid the coronavirus crisis. Now, more than half of public school K-12 teachers have said the pandemic resulted in a "significant" learning loss for students, both academically and from a social-emotional standpoint, according to a report by Horace Mann.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggested that virtual learning "might present more risks than in-person instruction related to child and parental mental and emotional health and some health-supporting behaviors."

"The pandemic has taken a toll on our students from an educational perspective, but there are a lot of other impacts happening," said Kelly Ruwe, an education advocate for Horace Mann, as well as a former kindergarten teacher and a mother-of-three. "We have to take a step back and look at the whole child," she added.