Parents respond to Talawanda teacher placed on leave

Andy Rice, the parent of a 15-year-old student at Talawanda High School and current Miami University professor, received the public statement from the Talawanda City School District yesterday, but didn’t know about the specifics of the incident until after The Miami Student reached out.

Talawanda School District placed Danielle Mann, an English teacher at Talawanda High School, on administrative leave following a social media post Mann made on TikTok during school hours on Wednesday, Nov. 7.

In the video, Mann said she challenges any man who voted Democrat in the 2024 election to identify themselves by wearing blue bracelets or blue safety pins and posting their stories on social media where they live so women could identify them as “safe spaces.”

Rice said he then saw the video on Facebook, and on X where it had been reposted by the account Libs of TikTok, an account that posts right-wing content, and regularly posts about teachers making political statements.

Rice said he worries that Mann may be harassed by people both in and out of the Oxford community. The Libs of TikTok post has been viewed 2.8 million times and received 1,275 comments as of noon, Nov. 9.

“She’s probably going to get death threats for this,” Rice said.

Tana Richards, a Talawanda graduate and parent of a current student, said she also feared for Mann’s safety. She said this was not the first time that Mann’s TikToks had been reposted on Facebook, however this is the first time that a video has gained traction. Richards also said Mann has been doxxed before.

Richards said Mann usually starts her TikToks with a disclaimer saying that she is using her own device, hotspot and is creating the video outside of school hours.

Richards said she disagrees with the backlash that Mann is facing online. She said she thought Talawanda handled the incident well by placing Mann on paid administrative leave, since they were following policy.

Rice and Richards both said they viewed Mann’s video as a way for her to express her grief.

“She looked like someone who was just quite sad and shaken about the election,” said Rice.

Rice said Mann ran the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at Talawanda High School and added that he is concerned about what might happen to the group if Mann does not return to the school.

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Similarly, Richards said Mann represented a safe space to many students. Both Richards and her daughter, a 2021 graduate of Talawanda, had Mann during their time at the school.

“She encourages everyone to think critically, no matter their political beliefs,” Richards said.

As a professor, Rice said he believes students and teachers need to be able to talk about controversial topics.

“It’s hard,” Rice said. “As a teacher, I don’t want students who might disagree with me politically to feel like they can’t speak their minds in class. It’s how we learn and how we grow.”

mahones5@miamioh.edu