An investigation by the Central Florida Post has uncovered how Benjamin Phillis, a middle school history teacher, was pushing his students to accept far-left political ideologies and murderous revolutionaries.
By Jacob Engels
Teachers pushing propaganda to their pupil is nothing new, it is an unfortunate side effect of the education system at every level. However, most people view the final years of high school and college as the time period at which students are most at risk of being conditioned to think one way or another by their instructors.
At Southwestern Middle School in Deland, Florida, history teacher Benjamin Phillis is already molding young minds in his image. A self-described “social justice advocate” who supports Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and who identifies as “he/him”, Phillis adorned his classroom walls with posters pushing far-left political ideologies and ideologues.
A poster promoting the anti-Semitic Women’s March, which has been under fire for several of it’s leaders making Hitlerian statements about Jewish people, features Islamic women in hijabs. Linda Sarsour, one of the founders of the Women’s March, supports the elimination of Israel as a state and the Islamic terrorist linked Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement.
On another wall, Phillis festooned a poster of brutal Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, a top aide to Fidel Castro in his rise to power. Guevara and the brutal despot dictator killed tens of thousands of people and forced homosexuals into “re-education” camps likened to the ones used by the Nazis to systematically kill millions of Jewish people. It is unclear why Phillis, who also claims to be an ally of the LGBT community, would choose to idolize such an evil man.
According to District Superintendent Tony Egnor, who we reached via email after beginning this investigation several weeks ago, teachers are not allowed to display materials designed to specifically to promote a candidate for office or persuade students to have a particular belief.
“It would be inappropriate,” Egnor commented when we asked him about general school policies about political activity by teachers in the classroom.
And Mr. Phillis does in fact seem intent on pushing one viewpoint over another. Other posters include that of Malcom X, a black separatist who wanted to further segregate the nation during the civil rights era.
Malcom X famously referred to white people as “the devil.” Materials championing the Black Lives Matter cause, which some have designated as a hate group with ties to the domestic terrorist organization known as Antifa, are also staring down on students day after day during official school hours.
Antifa has been involved in countless violent melees on journalists, people of color, conservatives and the elderly since 2016. They often use improvised explosive devices, mace, blunt force objects and their bare fists to punish anyone they think possess a political viewpoint counter to their idea of an anarcho leftist state. Recently, a high-ranking member of Antifa firebombed an ICE facility in Tacoma, Washington. Gay Asian journalist Andy Ngo was beaten by a horde of Antifa and ended up being hospitalized for a brain-bleed for simply documenting their behavior in Portland, Oregon. The Dayton, Ohio mass shooter’s social media accounts were littered with praise for groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
These are the ideas and people that Mr. Phillis presumably associates with on his own time, which is his choice as an American. Unfortunately, he has decided to bring his disturbing political stances into the classroom and has offered no viable platform for his students to discuss or digest anything else but his viewpoints.
Not one poster presenting a conservative, far-right, or even center-right idea is present in Mr. Phillis classroom. At the end of the day, teachers should not bring their personal politics into the classroom if they purposefully use their power as an instructor and mentor to indoctrinate students in any form or fashion.
Following an email to leadership at Southwestern Middle School, Volusia County School Board Members and Mr. Phillis, our sources have confirmed that he was removed from the classroom at the start of the day and had to take down the Che Guevara and Black Lives Matter poster. The other posters are allegedly still up and inquiries into his status with the Southwestern Middle School and Volusia County Public Schools were left unanswered by our deadline of 5pm today.
If you wish to contact the Superintendent of Volusia County Public Schools about this situation or Southwestern Middle School directly, you may find their contact information below.
Volusia County Public Schools Superintendent Tony Egnor can be emailed at: tpegnor@volusia.k12.fl.us.
Southwestern Middle School Principal Jacquese Copeland can be emailed at: jjcopela@volusia.k12.fl.us
Those wishing to contact Benjamin Phillis directly may do so at bjphilli@volusia.k12.fl.us.
It is our hope that the School District takes this matter seriously and thinks very carefully before allowing Mr. Phillis to engage in further attempts to brainwash his pupils.
Jacob Engels is an Orlando based journalist whose work has been featured and republished in news outlets around the globe including Politico, InfoWars, MSNBC, Orlando Sentinel, New York Times, Daily Mail UK, Associated Press, People Magazine, ABC, Fox News, and Australia’s New Dawn Magazine and LauraLoomer.US. Mr. Engels focuses on stories that other news outlets neglect or willingly hide to curry favor among the political and business special interests in the state of Florida.
