Substitute teacher fired after giving Nazi salute to third graders

A substitute teacher was fired from a Vermont school on Thursday after giving the Nazi salute in front of third graders.

The "long-term substitute" was talking with students at Georgia Elementary & Middle School when the incident took place, according to Seven Days.

"I'm at a loss on the whole thing," Franklin West Supervisory Union Superintendent Ned Kirsch told the Vermont publication on Friday. "People are shocked. People I've spoken to are at a loss for words."

Kirsch wrote in a letter to parents that kids were "standing with their arm out in front of them and the teacher was modeling the position."

The sub then "raised her arm slightly and said, 'And now we say, Heil Hitler,'" according to the letter obtained by Seven Days.

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The teacher owned up to doing the salute and speaking the phrase, and was "immediately relieved," according to Kirsch.

She had been teaching at the school, located in Georgia, Vt., for many years and nothing like this had happened before, Kirsch wrote in the letter.

"It's not a pattern; [I]never had a report about her, nothing," Kirsch said, according to Seven Days. "No one can quite understand what happened."

Kirsch told Seven Days that the teacher she was subbing for was set to return Monday and had been on maternity leave.

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