Will County Gazette

Glenbard North High School principal John Mensik vows school officials will continue operating as they have on the COVID-19 front after a teacher was forced to resign after verbally abusing a student he felt was wearing his mask improperly.

"Please know that we will continue to follow this mandate and appreciate the cooperation from all staff, students and visitors," Mensik told FoxNews.com.  

The incident was captured on cellphone video and posted by Libs of Tik Tok to Twitter, where it quickly went viral, being viewed more than 320,000 times.

In the video, the teacher, since identified as Scott Grigoletto, can be heard calling the student a “piece of sh*t.” The clip is captioned "My friend had his mask under his nose, and this Karen went crazy, got up in his face and cuzed (sic) at him."

The footage also shows the student asking "Are you playing," prompting the teacher to respond "No, I'm not. Otherwise, I will call the police. I'm serious. I knew you were going to take off your mask the moment I turned the corner."

Moments later, the student is threatened with in-school suspension, as the teacher adds "because you're a piece of sh--.”

As the video made the rounds on social media, Mensik sent out a notice to parents saying the incident was being investigated and promising that it would be handled "in an appropriate manner."

On Aug. 4, just as schools across the state were getting set to reopen for in-person learning, Gov. J.B. Pritzker reimposed a universal masking mandate requiring all public and private school students to wear masks.

In his notice to parents, Mensik sought to remind them that the governor is on record in asserting that any school not following the mandate stands to face penalties that could include no longer being recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education, which could lead to lost funding and students not being able to compete in IHSA athletic programs.