Crystal River (Fla.) Middle School social studies teacher Dayanna Volitich Screenshot : Crystal River Middle School ( Tamba Bay Times )

In an exclusive report, HuffPost has revealed evidence suggesting that a 25-year-old Florida middle school teacher, Dayanna Volitich, has been secretly hosting a white nationalist podcast. In the Unapologetic podcast, which Volitich hosts under the alias “Tiana Dalichov,” Volitich brags about bringing her racist beliefs into her Crystal River Middle School classroom.


“I get to talk about topics that people don’t like to talk about,” Volitich says in one snippet from her podcast, which HuffPost has embedded on its site. “They don’t want to be seen as a bigot, racist, whatever you want to call it. I honestly don’t care.”


The screenshots (Volitich also posed as her “Tiana Dalichov” alias on Twitter; her account has since been deleted, but as HuffPost knows, screenshots are forever) and podcasts reveal that Volitich certainly didn’t care about being seen as a bigot—in fact, she reveled in wildly racist, debunked beliefs.

From HuffPost:

In her most recent podcast on Feb. 26, a guest railed against diversity in schools, dismissing the idea that “a kid from Nigeria and a kid who came from Sweden are supposed to learn exactly the same” and have the “same IQ.” Volitich enthusiastically agreed with the guest, and went on to argue that “science” has proven that certain races are smarter than others.

Later in the episode, Volitich also agreed that white supremacists need to infiltrate schools:

“They don’t have to be vocal about their views, but get in there!” her guest said. “Be more covert and just start taking over those places.” “Right,” Volitich said. “I’m absolutely one of them.”

After the HuffPost story came out, WFTS-TV in Tampa Bay found another article published on the far-right news site Halsey News under the headline “Tiana Dalichov: White Privilege Challenge.” In it, Dalichov prompted people to write arguments proving “one single instance of white privilege,” for which she would give them $100.


HuffPost pieced together that Volitich was actually “Dalichov” by lining up a series of coincidences. “Dalichov” listed her home as Crystal River, which matches public records for Volitich’s home. “Dalichov” has shared on her podcast that she’s a schoolteacher who has been teaching at her current school for one year. The same was true for Volitich and her position at Crystal River. “Dalichov” tweeted that she was 25 years old, which is Volitich’s age. And after HuffPost reached out to the Citrus County School District about Volitich, “Dalichov” mentioned on her Twitter account that she would be going dark for a while.



But perhaps the clearest evidence is that Volitich, presumably part of the race that has higher IQs than others, posted an actual picture of herself as the avatar for her “Dalichov” Twitter account. As HuffPost notes, not only does it appear to be the same person, but Volitich is also wearing the same earrings in her Twitter photo as she is in the Crystal River Middle School website.


The most disturbing part of HuffPost’s revelations is that Volitch was consciously indoctrinating her students. As the article notes, the middle school social studies teacher says that her students knew her political beliefs and even helped “play along” with administrators to help hide them.

From one of her podcasts, according to WFTS-TV:

“I told the kids that. I said guys when they are in here I’m going to be different than I usually am. I just don’t want you to be shocked, I want you to play along and they’re like OK. OK,” she said in the podcast.


Later in the podcast, after Volitich’s guest asks her if the kids ever told their parents what they learned in class, she confirms that the principal once followed up with her over an email a parent had sent:

“I had one at the beginning of this year who emailed the principal over my head and basically told her I’m worried that your teacher is injecting political bias into her teaching. And the principal came to me and she was like I’m not worried, should I be worried? And I was like no. And she believed me and she backed off.”


Nearly 90 percent of Crystal River Middle School is white. The city of Crystal River itself is over 80 percent white, according to the latest census, with black people making up just over 7 percent of the population. Latinx residents account for another 5 percent.



As the HuffPost article notes, this isn’t the first high-profile outing of a teacher’s white nationalist identity. Late last year, Splinter News revealed that Greg Conte, a white supremacist who worked for Richard Spencer’s think tank, the National Policy Institute, had gotten a job as an equal-employment officer. He also worked as a substitute teacher at a private high school in Maryland.


And in Louisiana, the principal of a charter school in New Orleans was fired after he was found wearing Nazi-associated rings in a video. He had also appeared on white nationalist podcasts.


Since the story broke, people from around the country have taken to social media to demand that the school district fire Volitich. Neither the Citrus County School District, of which Crystal River is a part, nor Volitich has confirmed the HuffPost story, though the school has told the site that it “will be looking into the statements she made, checking the validity to see if they violate our code of ethics and policy.”

