A Louisiana high school math teacher and swim coach has been put on leave after a social media post emerged of a profanity-laced tirade directed toward a group of students in a classroom.
Mike Diffie, the head swim coach at Captain Shreve High School
The initial video was posted on Facebook, with more video posted on TikTok by a user named Sherls (here, with multiple trigger warnings), with multiple parents posting on social media that they were later told by their children that this kind of speech was a regular occurrence for Diffie.
Among the messages that were concerning for school officials was the following:
“If you’re fat, who’s fault is that? Yours. And I’ll say that straight up.”
“Ain’t nobody forcing s*** down your throat.”
“Everybody wants to be body positive. Let’s celebrate fat people. Why? They’re gonna’ f****** die because they’re fat.”
He continued to say that “genetics” are not an excuse for being overweight:
“I do marathons. All my parents are fat. My parents are fat and so is my brother. That’s not genetics, that’s a f****** excuse,” he said.
Caddo Parish Public Schools released a statement on the video, saying:
“Immediate action was taken by the district once we became aware of the video. We take these matters seriously and started an investigation. The person involved in this incident has since been placed on administrative leave.”
According to his Twitter profile, Diffie also works as a strength & conditioning coach at the David Toms Golf Academy, and also works as a baseball and basketball coach at the school.
According to his bio on the school’s athletics website, he played high school basketball, baseball, and soccer. He was a member of the cross country team at the University of Arkansas Monticello in 2010 and was an all-conference shortstop on the baseball team. He then transferred to LSU-Shreveport, where he was an all-conference 2nd baseman.
After finishing his college career, he spent a couple of seasons playing professional independent-league baseball before moving into coaching.
The 2022-2023 season is his 2nd year at Captain Shreve. The school’s boys’ team won a district title in 2021; that same year, senior swimmer Lilly Tichenor was named the MVP of the Division I High School State Championship meet.
At the 2022 championship meet, the Captain Shreve girls finished 8th in Division I and the boys finished 14th. Division I includes the state’s largest high schools.
while he is right about personal accountability; whenever i see an out of shape kid(adults different matter) i think of their parents failing to guide him/her first.
of course, i figure it’s got nothing to do with malice/laziness in 99% of cases. just general ignorance/being misinformed about nutrition. like in my case, i was a bit overweight before joining the swim team(which promptly took care of that) when i was kid and my parents certainly took good care of me in other areas.
thankfully that carried me for a while til i properly learned about proper nutrition in my mid/late 20s. ever wonder why that isnt taught in school
It’s not nearly as simple as this, though.
Ultra high processed food is often significantly cheaper, or the only thing available to most. It’s also generally easier to prepare, and is advertised much more than “healthy” options.
Just because we’re a bunch of rich swimmers – which we are – doesn’t mean it’s that same way for everyone. .
This guy’s not just being crass with how he’s saying things, he’s also wrong. Hell of a combo.
Basically to the middle of 20th century birching punishment was acceptable at public schools.
Now making our children suffering physically is prohibited. So what they do instead, they damage them mentally. I hate public schools. There is no place for real professional there. We put our child on the school bus, take them later from it and have no idea what’s going on in their lives during the day. And later in life we often get surprised how that happened that our child isn’t what we taught him/her to be.
Just yesterday my friends in Boston told me a story how they received a call from the teacher of their 10yo son. She complained angrily and very aggressively… Read more »
Please be careful about blanket statements regarding public schools — speak to your specific experience but not to those of all others. I have been a public school teacher for 35 years, and my daughters excelled in our public schools. Public school IS a place for a “real professional,” and we need more great teachers who care about kids and curriculum, who focus on skills and content students need to be successful. We need more “real professionals” to step into the teaching arena. The kind of behavior demonstrated by this teacher and coach is inexcusable, but I would contend this is not typical of all public school teachers. I am sorry for your experiences, but I remain proud of the… Read more »
There are always exceptions and there always people who consider teaching children(and I mean real teaching but not just the way of making living) a mission of their lives. And there are always children who go through public education successfully. And I’m honestly sorry for hurting your feelings. But if there was a choice for you to do your job in private school would you take an offer? If the answer is “yes”, then it would be interesting to hear why if there are some other reasons than simply money.
My feelings weren’t hurt — a few statements just made me stand up and defend those who teach well in the public school setting. I would not take a job in a private school, but thanks for asking and thanks for understanding the good and the bad in both private and public school settings. Fortunately, I have experienced and witnessed real teaching — wish that were the norm across the country.
the comments on the original tiktok are abhorrent. probably mfs that have so much shame in themselves they are just finding an outlet to make themselves feel better
This teacher has nobody to blame but himself. No excuses.
Exactly. “That’s the mindset y’all have. Let’s find excuses. It’s someone else’s fault. It’s always someone else’s fault… Take responsibility for yourself”. But I bet anything he’s blaming other people and making excuses right now
his behavior is abhorrent. although he may ultimately be trying to motivative these students, this is a terrible way to go about it.
that said, he was kinda spittin. yes, there are things outside of our control, but we still have so much agency in our lives to make them as good and productive as possible. we are all capable of achieving greatness.
He’s right, but the way he communicates the message is not right.
Simple.
He’s not right.
*slow clap*
“All my parents are fat”
How many parents does he have?
Seriously? Man spoke the truth and now everyone is going to talk about it. Good for him….
I agree – he could have dropped the profanity.
I think it’s less about what he said and more about how he said it. I don’t think there’s any place for that kind of profanity when speaking to high school students.
There’s no place for a HS teacher/coach to be discussing any students body size.
I cannot believe the downvotes on this Jeepers. It is NEVER appropriate for a teacher or a coach to talk about a student’s body size. Ever. If this was about a coach talking about hot girls at the school y’all would be trippin. Body size is body size and it’s nobody’s business but the kid’s and their parents. Just STOP talking about people’s bodies. Whether they look good or look bad. Period. There are other ways to share compliments and criticisms without commenting on someone’s body.
“I feel like I’m wasting my time, talking to a bunch of idiots” is an incredibly inappropriate way for a HS teacher to address his students
What part of that was true?
What he said was true. The way he chose to say it was wrong.
My dad used to say “You can be right the right way or you can be right the wrong way, and when you’re right the wrong way you’re just wrong”.