Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angelica Infante Green responded to a tweet sent out by a Woonsocket teacher who “offered to pay someone with Covid-19 to cough on President Trump” by calling it “unprofessional and not acceptable.” The Education Commissioner was responding to a story on DePetro.com (the website of the John DePetro Show)  https://depetro.wpengine.com/2020/03/woonsocket-teacher-offers-to-pay-someone-with-coronavirus-to-cough-on-trump/.  Amy Bednarz, a 6th grade teacher at Villa Nova Middle school in  Woonsocket,  used an alias on Twitter of  Proud Teacher and tweeted out Sunday  ” Somebody with Covid 19, I will pay you to cough on #Trump.”  Commissioner InFante Green reacted to the story on www.depetro.com by tweeting,”I was saddened & disappointed to see this tweet-it is unprofessional and sends the wrong message during a time when our whole education community is setting a national example. This is not acceptable and certainly not representative of the overwhelming majority of RI teachers.”

The Education Commissioner attended the Governors Monday coronavirus news briefing however neither the Governor or the Education Commissioner commented on the tweet controversy. Governor Raimondo did announce this Thursday will be a special news briefing geared towards students. The Woonsocket teachers are represented by the American Federation of Teachers and led by controversial leader Randi Weingarten. Weingarten had been in the news recently regarding heated discussions with the Education Commissioner regarding the failure of the Providence public schools. A representative at the Secret Service who answered the phone (and would not give their name) confirmed the Secret Service was aware of the story but would neither confirm or deny there was an investigation. This story is developing…

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