Springfield Middle School teacher openly supports Hamas on social media; appears to compare GamerGate supporters to Nazis

On March 20, 2024, the organization StopAntisemitism posted on X that a teacher at Springfield Middle School of Washington County Public Schools had praised Hamas on social media. Parents Defending Education looked into the teacher and found that he is an “English Language Arts” educator for the middle school.

In a post on October 25, 2023, just a few weeks after Hamas attacked Israel, the teacher responded to a Hamas activist who accused Israel of “genocidal actions.” The teacher responded by stating his support of Hamas:

Frankly it’s insane you can’t openly support Hamas. You’ll have Americans tell you why letting fascists commit mass rape in Chile was justified during the Cold War, but god forbid someone justify armed resistance.

In another post on November 29, he stated that the Israeli “hostages were dapping up Hamas.” The Oxford English Dictionary describes “dapping up” as “the action or practice of greeting or acknowledging someone with a casual gesture, typically involving slapping palms, bumping fists, or snapping fingers.”

Parents Defending Education found additional posts from the teacher accusing StopAntisemitism of doxxing him. On March 20, 2024, he posted that he was “trying to get some big streamers to help put eyes on my content after being doxxed and harassed by far right Zionist accounts.” He specifically stated that he was “looking for help from leftist streamers.” He then tagged several larger online left-wing political activists, including Hasan Piker.

On October 25, 2023, he appeared to post in support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as being a successful tool in fighting against Israel.

PDE also found additional posts from the teacher on GamerGate. In 2014, Gamergate was an online movement against political activism being pushed into video games and the games industry. The industry is currently in a movement called “GamerGate 2” where gamers are pushing back against DEI consultants encouraging game studios to adopt progressive messaging into their video games. A major figure in the original GamerGate movement who pushed for games to adopt left-wing political ideology was transgender activist Brianna Wu.

In a post dated March 17, 2024, Brianna Wu appeared to post a pro-Israel message. Wu is a notable left-wing political activist outside of the games industry now. The teacher accused Wu of “clearly been paid to post by predominantly far right forces since at least 2014, either wittingly or unwittingly, just like everyone involved in the first wave of gamergate.”

In a March 14 post attacking GamerGate again, he mocked the idea of people opposing progressive ideology in video games. He appeared to compare gamers who disagree with progressive ideology to “Nazis.” He stated:

The idea that they’re making gamers woke and not funneling people into the military or finding violent people to groom into mass shooters is another nail in the “I’m not cultivating an audience of nazis” coffin.