A pro-BLM teacher who was fired from her job at a South Carolina school because of a video saying that black Americans built this country and therefore have the right to “burn down the motherf***er.” has a new job teaching middle school students in Maryland.
Lane Cogdill, once an eighth-grade history teacher at the school in the small town of Hilton Head, was transferred to the school two summers ago over the now-deleted TikTok video that sparked debate and even death threats for Cogdill at the time.
Amid the backlash, the teacher – also an avid TikToker with a strong following on social media – was reassigned to a nearby adult education center in Beaufort amid calls for Codgill’s firing.
Controversy soon erupted while Cogdill continued to post progressive, often polarizing content after being reprimanded by the district’s superintendent and school principal.
Now, Codgill – who uses the pronouns “ze/zir,” “they/them,” and “he/him” – appears to be teaching children again, posting problematic snippets, including some that insist on concealing students’ gender changes part of it is school politics.
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Lane Cogdill, a pro-BLM teacher who was fired from her job at a South Carolina school over a video saying black Americans built this country and therefore have the right to “be the motherf***er.” burn down,” has found a new job teaching middle school students in Maryland, it was revealed
Staff at Silver Spring International Middle School – whose website lists Codgill as a staff member – reportedly said this week that they were “investigating” their new staffer’s troubled past.
“Hey everyone, I have some thoughts on what’s going on in the world as a history teacher who cares about racial justice,” Cogdill says in the since-deleted clip, which misplaced her from Hilton Head Island Middle School in June 2020, as protests erupted across the US over the death of George Floyd by police brutality.
The teacher continues, “I keep hearing people say, I understand protesting, but I don’t understand rioting and looting, and I want to remind you all that this country was literally built by black people.
“Black bodies were literally the currency that our white founding fathers used to fund the revolution,” says Cogdill, before explaining, “As far as I’m concerned, as a white person and as a history teacher, if your ancestors built in this country, you did.” Right to burn down the motherf***er.’
About three weeks later, a parent posted a link to the video on Facebook while also sending a link to Cogdill’s then-principal, Pat Freda, and the Beaufort County school district’s human resources director.
Almost immediately, the parents were angered by the content of Cogdill’s staff required to address the incident, with the teacher – who had been with the public school for two years at the time – reporting that they had received death threats.
The county reprimanded Cogdill on July 18 — more than a month after the video was posted — citing the teacher’s use of profanity and encouragement of violence, both of which constituted flagrant violations of Beaufort County school district police
Lane Cogdill, once an eighth-grade history teacher at the small-town Hilton Head school, was transferred to the school two summers ago over the now-deleted TikTok video that sparked debate and even death threats against the teacher at the time
Aside from a note in Cogdill’s personnel file, the reprimand was that a month later, Cogdill was assigned to the Beaufort County School District’s adult education department.
The maneuver provided for the school clerk to be retained as a county clerk — a decision officials reportedly reached after receiving a rebuttal letter from Cogdill, who identifies as non-binary and uses the salutation Mx. instead of Mr or Mrs
A spokesman for the school district confirmed the transfer at the time, but declined to give further details because it was a “personnel matter.”
Many in the mostly conservative neighborhood were unhappy with the county’s supreme court and expressed a desire for harsher punishment given the offense and the teacher’s other content — including advice for transitional children on how to hide their gender from parents and rants of systemic abuse Racism.
Many in the mostly conservative neighborhood were unhappy with the county’s supreme court and expressed a desire for harsher punishment given the offense and the teacher’s other content — including advice for transitional children on how to hide their gender from parents and rants of systemic abuse racism
Despite this backlash, a defiant Cogdill urged the district to reconsider the reassignment, saying several from the community, including some parents of their former students, had written emails supporting keeping Cogdill at the middle school.
At the time, Cogdill told The Island Packet: “I knew promotion was a possibility, but it’s still a punch in the stomach to have dedicated myself to this school for the last two years to teach, coach softball and other things to do extracurricular activities.
“I’m very much a part of the school community,” she said.
However, the district insisted it continued to receive calls and emails from parents unhappy about the TikTok video incident, so the reassignment stood.
Despite this backlash, a defiant Cogdill urged the district to reconsider the reassignment, saying several from the community, including some parents of their former students, had written emails supporting keeping Cogdill at the middle school
Staff at Silver Spring International Middle School – whose website lists Codgill as a staff member – reportedly said this week that they were “investigating” their new staffer’s troubled past.
Cogdill, meanwhile, continued to insist that she shouldn’t have been subject to punishment for not sharing her TikTok account with students.
Cogdill also cited a stipulation from district officials that the situation and the resulting controversy “affected” their conduct in properly doing their job.
“It was said that the district reserved the right to take further action if it became clear when school returned in the fall that the situation had impacted my ability to teach effectively,” Codgill said.
They added: “I do not agree that the district reprimanded me for this. However, I was willing to just accept it and move on. I think there is a problem there that teachers have a right to free speech.’
Still, calls for Codgill’s sacking continued, with the social media influencer reportedly receiving death threats for social media posts defending his stance on the District.
One such post read: “Perhaps the burning and destruction she wholeheartedly embraces could start at her school while she works and perhaps burn her car. I’m sure she would be fine with that.”
Now, more than two and a half years later, Cogdill appears to have been employed elsewhere, now working as a history teacher at Silver Spring International Middle School, a predominantly progressive school just outside of Washington DC
Amid the backlash, the teacher — also an avid TikToker with a strong following on social media — was transferred to this Beaufort adult education center amid calls for her to be fired
The comment prompted Cogdill to file a report with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, urging police to investigate the threat.
“For me, there’s a difference between rude comments and direct threats,” they told local reporters at the time.
At the time, Cogdill had hired an attorney but said they had no intention of filing a lawsuit against the school district or any other party. “People have asked me if I regret what I said and I don’t,” Cogdill said of the controversy they faced over the video.
“Is that a statement I would ever say in the classroom? Absolutely not. But I didn’t make the statement in my classroom.’
Now, more than two and a half years later, Cogdill appears to have been employed elsewhere, now working as a history teacher at Silver Spring International Middle School, a predominantly progressive school just outside of Washington DC.
The school’s governing district, Montgomery County Public Schools, lists Cogdill as an employee, although it is not clear when her employment began. reached out to the district on Sunday for comment on the status of their employment.
The school’s governing district, Montgomery County Public Schools, lists Cogdill as an employee, although it is not clear when her employment began. has reached out to the district for comment
The district reportedly told Fox News on Sunday that they were “investigating” Cogdill’s story but also couldn’t “comment further because it’s a personnel matter.”
also asked if district officials should address Cogdill’s continued claims that the district has a policy of hiding student transitions, something the teacher has touted in several recent videos.
The district did not immediately respond to these requests.
Cogdill described the discretion they show their students in a recent clip: “I always ask a trans or questioning student as soon as I find out what name you prefer? Which pronouns do you prefer? Who else knows?
“And how would you like me to refer to you when I speak to your family, to the administration, to other teachers, in front of other students? Some students ask me not to reveal their identity, and that’s a promise I always keep.”
The teacher added, “I cannot imagine breaking the trust of any single trans or non-binary student by sharing details about their gender identity with anyone…especially their parents, their counselors and their administrators.”
Regarding their pronouns and gender identities, Cogdill says: “The pronouns they usually use to confirm me are ze/zir or she/she or he/him. My title is Mx. Cogdill—Mx. – and not Ms. or Mr. And I Ask my students… to use Mx instead of “ma’am” or “sir”.
“I changed my name to Lane because it’s gender neutral. I also call myself Theo, which is affirmative because my manhood isn’t always recognized by other people.”
They add in a separate clip, “Some people identify as gendered, meaning their gender … fluidly alternates between male and female and age or other identities. Agender means that the person does not identify as or with gender at all, just like off the gender planet.
“There’s also genderqueer, which suits me best, which means I’m just not a man and just not a woman. But my gender is… definitely queer.”
Online, Cogdill has more than 10,000 followers and has accumulated more than 100,000 likes in three years. They said they don’t accept follow requests from students.