A substitute teacher with ties to Russian state media has been suspended from teaching at a middle school in Arlington, Virginia, after he made comments defending the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
FOX 5 DC reported that Stanton, a substitute teacher at Swanson Middle School, claimed to have “understood” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rationale for the war and that it “made sense from a Russian national security point of view.”
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Stanton has previously worked for several Kremlin-aligned news organizations, including Pravda and Sputnik News, the latter of which, according to PBS, fired him in 2018 for “passing along information.”
“I’d exercise caution in relying on the credibility of what you hear/read from Sputnik,” Stanton reportedly told a PBS reporter five days before he was fired.
Despite having recourse to appeal his suspension, Stanton told FOX 5 he did not plan to seek reinstatement, arguing he told his students to assess information from both Western and Eastern sources.
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“It is pointless to petition,” Stanton told the school district. “We live in a time of war propaganda from both sides, which brings with it censorship of opinions deviating from the core message. It is at a fever pitch now. As an expert in information warfare and the author of many pieces on the subject, I speak with some authority.”
