Red Bluff teacher compares COVID-19 vaccine mandate to Holocaust in viral TikTok video

A school district in Red Bluff is investigating the statements made on social media by a teacher who made a viral TikTok video in which she wore a yellow star on her chest and compared the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in California to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

The video was removed from TikTok but not before users responded and saved bits of it on the app. In the video, Berrendos Middle School teacher Stacy Pearce said she is wearing a yellow star on her chest to draw parallels between the vaccine mandate and the Holocaust. While sitting in what appears to be the inside of a vehicle, she urged others on the social media app to join her in protest.

The video was reported by an app user, who contacted the Berrendos Middle School and local TV news stations.

Antelope Elementary School District Chief Business Officer Tammy Alamo, said the district, which oversees the school, is aware of the remarks that were made and is investigating them. The district declined to comment further.

In a Thursday public statement, Superintendent Jim Webber said the Antelope Elementary district is committed to providing a safe learning environment.

"The district wants to make it very clear that we seek to educate children in an environment of respect for each other, for our community, and for humankind. It is unthinkable to trivialize the systemic persecution, torture and murder of 6 million people by comparing it to a vaccination requirement in a time of pandemic. Appropriating the profound trauma of Jewish history in order to make some political point is offensive and inexcusable — particularly in an institution that shapes the minds of our future," the statement reads in part.

Pearce’s remarks drew support from some. Members of a local Facebook group contend she is being wrongfully targeted for her stance resisting the state’s COVID-19 vaccine orders. 

However, it has upset many around the country after the teacher's video made national news when it was featured on msn.com.

Ethan Kratz, an associate professor of history and Jewish studies at University of California, Berkeley, said the comments are deeply offensive and ignorantly made.

It is a choice to comply with COVID-19 mandates, whereas “it’s profoundly different from being persecuted because one or two of your grandparents were of Jewish descent,” Katz said. “The star of David is a symbol the Jews were forced to wear by a totalitarian regime that was enacting the beginning of a policy of extermination of an ethnoreligious group.”

And while people can have disagreements about the role a government should play during a pandemic, the contagious disease remains a serious public health crisis that the government does play a role in addressing, he said.

More:Northern California student attendance returns to normal after mandate walkout

“Then the disagreement is how far can a government go in trying to incentivize or force people to wear masks,” he added.

Nazi Holocaust comparisons have become ubiquitous in pollical culture, Kratz  said. He believes the parallels drawn to the Holocaust damage the ability to have serious debate and create a loss of historical consciousness about the distinctive horror of Nazism, he said.

“This is why it’s deeply offensive. Those of us who have families who perished in the Holocaust feel that the memory of this tragedy is being appropriated in a way that has nothing to do with our (the Jewish community and victim's descendants) experience and in that way it’s really a denial of our experience.”

Nada Atieh is a Report For America corps member and education reporter focusing on childhood trauma and the achievement gap for the Redding Record Searchlight. Follow her on Twitter at @nadatieh_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today! And if you are able, please consider a tax-deductible gift toward her work.