Sheridan Tihista, a former Miss Montana who is now a special education teacher at Liberty Middle School in North Dakota, is facing backlash after her students’ parents discovered that she was tweeting about them.
Tihista, who won the 2013 Miss Montana pageant, is now a middle school special education teacher in West Fargo, North Dakota. On Friday, April 7, a group of parents emailed over 20 pages of her printed tweets to both school officials and a local news outlet.
The tweets in question, which were sent to ABC affiliate WDAY, show Tihista referring to the mothers of autistic students as “monsters” and mocking students for seeking “attention.”
via Twitter
Via WDAY:
She also disclosed and described interactions with students, sometimes dismissively. For instance, in one post she said the best part about teaching autistic students is she never has to change up her classroom routine because “we loooove routines!” In another, she posted an image of a text exchange showing someone saying they wanted “attention” as their Christmas gift, then wrote “Basically all my students.”
Tihista’s Twitter account had been public, meaning anyone could read the posts. But on Friday, April 7, she briefly made it private, only allowing approved followers to view her posts. Then she deleted the account entirely.
Tihista sent a text to WDAY News, acknowledging that while the tweets were inappropriate, they do not represent her as a teacher overall:
“My tweets may have been distasteful but don’t illustrate what kind of educator I am,” she said.
While the West Fargo School District policy on social media notes that such statements of this nature may be protected by the First Amendment, teachers can still be disciplined for off-duty conduct or posting unbecoming content.
via Twitter
