By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-23 21:06:28 | Updated at 2024-11-24 00:00:22
3 hours ago
A teacher who warned Donald Trump supporters not to start a fight with her or they would lose, and die, says she would consider a more peaceful approach.
Annie Dunleavy, 30, resigned from Chapman Elementary School in Cheshire, Connecticut, amid backlash against her Snapchat video.
She went viral after the video she posted to a private channel vowing to leave Trump supporters 'on a stretcher... forever' if they 'tested their gangster' on her.
Dunleavy was put on a temporary leave from the school as the institution investigated her post-election rant, and quit soon after.
Losing her dream job gave Dunleavy some clarity about expressing her political beliefs in a healthier and more productive way.
Her local News 8 asked if she would consider 'running for office or getting involved in something that would perhaps lead to change' instead of yelling online.
'Yes, I think that (venting on social media) was my initial thought of how I could make a change and how I could share my views, and clearly that is not the right away to go about it,' she said.
In her video, Donleavy claims that the people she cares about 'aren't gonna be safe in America' so 'neither the f**k are you guys'.
Annie Dunleavy, 30, of Wallingford, was left feeling heartbroken after she resigned from Chapman Elementary School, where she worked as a Special Ed teacher, after receiving massive backlash. 'I was in a moment of high emotion, and I shouldn't have posted,' she said
'Just because you won doesn't mean we don't remember who the f**k you voted for you're not in the clear... please, please don't test your gangster on me because you will end on a stretcher - gone, forever,' she said.
'[I'm] so serious nobody f**king talk to me unless you wanna swing - if you wanna fight text me call me, whatever, anybody else stay the f**k outta my face.
'If you voted for Trump literally, please delete me, block me, get rid of everything of me - or step to me, so that I know what's up and I can handle you how I see fit,' she added.
She then finished her rant by asking Trump supporters to 'come forward... or leave, please, [there's] the door'.
Donleavy said after the video went viral she did, indeed, get a lot of Trump supporters contact her saying they would fight her - mostly men.
Elsewhere in the interview she explained the rant wasn't meant as a threat, but she understood how some people could interpret it that way.
'I hope that people know I am not a danger, I would never hurt anyone, I have never hurt anyone unless my safety was in danger - and that was the point I was trying to get across,' she said.
'But I completely understand why it was taken a different way.'
Dunleavy went viral after a video (pictured) she had posted to a private Snapchat channel -where she said she would leave Trump supporters 'on a stretcher' if they 'tested their gangster' on her - made waves on the internet
What the educator said she meant to convey was how she believed a second Trump presidency would 'give people the permission in their minds to enact violence against women'.
'I wanted to basically just say like, I'm not going to go down without a fight. I will fight for myself and if someone was to try to hurt me I would do what I had to do to protect myself,' she said.
'That all came out in a very aggressive tone and a very aggressive manner because of the you know emotional state I was in at the moment.'
Donleavy explained that she became overwhelmed by sexist comments from Trump supporters as they celebrated his victory.
'I saw a lot of men commenting that basically they had won women have lost, we will always be kept down,' she said.
'There were comments about, it's your body, our choice now, you will never control your own body a lot of comments like that about women having the rights to their bodies.'
The special education teacher said she posted the video in a private Snapchat group and it wad never supposed to be seen by the public.
'I was in a moment of high emotion, and I shouldn't have posted... The message came off wrong,' she said.
'The message came off wrong,' she said. What the educator said she meant to convey was how she believed a second Trump presidency would 'give people the permission in their minds to enact violence against women.'
Donleavy said her poor decisions cost her a dream job and she didn't sleep or eat well in the aftermath of the video going viral.
'It's my life's dream to be a teacher. I consider those kids to be my kids, and they fill that for me, and it's just so fulfilling, so rewarding,' she said.
'And I really know that what people see right now, I don't look like that person, but I truly would do anything to help any child and family in need.'
After her resignation, Cheshire Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Solan said the comments on her video did not reflect the position of the school system.
Cheshire Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Solan said in a statement: 'The comments on that video did not reflect the position of our school system'
'They were hurtful, deeply concerning, and ultimately undermined the faith that our community has placed in us,' he said.
'Every student and family has the right to attend our schools free from the concern of political prejudice, let alone their safety.'
The Cheshire Board of Education Chair Samantha Rosenberg also released a statement, writing: 'The Board of Education is united in finding the teacher's behavior reprehensible and unacceptable, and we are horrified and deeply offended by statements made in the video.'
Despite the threats Donleavy made in the video, the Cheshire Police will not be pressing criminal charges against her.
