Dayanna Volitich aka Tiana Dalichov: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

A 25-year-old middle school social studies teacher in Florida who had secretly been hosting a white nationalist podcast, as well as expressing right wing extremist views, including racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim thoughts, on Twitter, in video interviews and in columns, has resigned from her position.

Dayanna Volitich, who worked at Crystal River Middle School in Citrus County, Florida, has used the name Tiana Dalichov online for several years, HuffPost reports. She has also used it as her pen name for young adult novels she has written.

The Citrus County School District said in March that Volitich has been removed from the classroom while an investigation was conducted. Volitich submitted her resignation and it will be approved at a school board meeting on April 10, CNN reports.

“On Friday, March 2, 2018 the Citrus County School District was made aware of a concerning podcast by a Huffington Post reporter. The reporter indicated they believed one of the persons participating in the podcast was a teacher at Crystal River Middle School. The Human Resources department was notified and an investigation was initiated immediately,” Superintendent of Schools Sandra Himmel said in a statement. “The teacher has been removed from the classroom and the investigation is ongoing. Pursuant to Florida Statute an open investigation and materials related to it are exempt from public record and cannot be discussed until the investigation is complete.”

The news site exposed her real identity after she bragged on her podcast about being a teacher who had been able to secretly bring her views into the classroom. The website Angry White Men, which tracks the alt-right movement, also revealed details about Tiana Dalichov’s background.

HuffPost connected several details of Volitich’s life with the Tiana Dalichov persona. Heavy has confirmed those details. Volitich is 25 and lives in Crystal City, Florida, and Dalichov mentioned online that she is 25 and lives in the same city. Dalichov also talked openly about being a middle school teacher who started working in 2016. And Dalichov also talked about being from the Pittsburgh area, which is where Volitich is from. Volitich can also be seen on the Crystal River Middle School website wearing the same earrings as those Dalichov was wearing in her Twitter profile photo. And, as HuffPost writes, “the names ‘Tiana Dalichov’ and ‘Dayanna Volitich’ share all but two of the same letters and the same number of syllables.”

Volitich has since deleted social media profiles in her real name and those under her pseudonym, and wiped out the archives of her podcast, “Unapologetic.” Archived versions of her podcast can still be heard here. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Heavy.

HuffPost reports that after the news site made inquiries to the school district about Volitich, the Tiana Dalichov account tweeted, she “might disappear for a while.”

Volitich issued a statement in March saying she is not a white supremacist or white nationalist, never injected her political beliefs into the classroom and was employing “political satire” under the “Tiana Dalichov” pseudonym:

None of the statements released about my being a white nationalist or white supremacist have any truth to them, nor are my political beliefs injected into my teaching of social studies curriculum. While operating under the Russian pseudonym ‘Tiana Dalichov’ on social media and the Unapologetic Podcast, I employed political satire and exaggeration, mainly to the end of attracting listeners and followers, and generating conversation about the content discussed between myself and my guests. The views ‘Tiana Dalichov’ espouses do not pervade my professional career. As an adult, my decisions are my own, and my family has nothing whatsoever to do with my social media accounts or my podcast. From them, I humbly ask for forgiveness, as it was never my intention to cause them grief while engaging in a hobby on my personal time. All future questions about the current situation should be directed to my attorney. I cannot comment further, due to the ongoing school board investigation.

Here’s what you need to know:

---

1. ‘Tiana Dalichov’ Suggested Terror Attacks Will Continue Unless ‘We Eradicate’ Muslims ‘From the Face of the Earth’ & Said It Isn’t ‘White Supremacist or Hateful to Prefer Your Own People Over Others’

Dayanna Volitich launched her podcast, “Unapologetic,” under the name Tiana Dalichov in February 2018.

“Unapologetic is a show that jumps into hard and taboo topics combining facts, class, and sass into a short show that covers lots of hard-hitting content from news, current events, and politics,” the show’s description said. “Come for the knowledge, stay for the fun!”

The show is affiliated with Remso Republic and Remso W. Martinez. He is a”a independent journalist and new media producer living in the D.C. area. Remso is best known for his podcast the Remso Republic, which reaches thousands of listeners each episode across many on-demand platforms and networks,” according to his website, which has deleted posts about “Unapologetic.”

Before starting her own podcast, Volitich wrote under the Tiana Dalichov pseudonym on the website Halsey News Network and appeared on YouTube channels and podcasts hosted by other white nationalist and alt right figures. She also talked about the anti-Semitic “Jewish Question,” on Twitter, shared posts by author Kevin MacDonald, and “praised, defended and retweeted white supremacists and neo-Nazis, including David Duke, Arthur Jones, Patrick Casey, Mark Collett and Mike Peinovich, aka Mike Enoch, according to HuffPost.

On February 5, Tiana Dalichov tweeted, “It isn’t white supremacist or hateful to prefer your own people over others.”

In November, she tweeted, “White privilege? Prove to me that it exists. Show me statistics that prove whites benefit economically SOLELY because of their race.” In October, she tweeted, “What does having compassion have to do with the fact that systematic racism and white privilege aren’t real?”

Her tweets briefly led to her account being suspended from Twitter in October. She posted a screenshot of the alert from Twitter and wrote, “Apologize for my absence. Twitter confined me in Twitter jail for the second time this week for educating people on the horrors of Islam. Let’s see if they make m delete this tweet, too. Place your bets.”

She also showed the tweet that was reported, which said, “Twitter forced me to delete these tweets about the reality of Islam, claiming they violated the rules.”

In February, the Tiana Dalichov account called lip plates worn by Ethiopian tribes, “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” in response to a tweet about “Black Panther.” She added, “And they get mad when we point out aggregate difference in IQ between Caucasoids and Negroids. Good Lord.”

She appeared on a “Halsey Live” YouTube stream in September 2017 to talk about the issue of NFL players kneeling to protest racism and police brutality. The video has been deleted from YouTube after her identity was exposed.

In that episode she also talked about other topics, including saying that she thinks the U.S. should not wait for North Korea to attack American soil first. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be adverse to just annihilating the entire country of North Korea. Just get rid of it. … We should just annihilate them, get rid of them before they end up giving up bombs to Iran and we end up having to deal with that. Because once we have to deal with that shitstorm, I don’t even want to imagine what that’s going to be like to deal with that.”

In a tweet in October, Tiana Dalichov shared a screenshot of a book for teachers on “Confronting Racism in Classrooms,” according to HuffPost. She wrote, “You know America’s education system is designed to enable victimization when teachers are forced to learn about institutional racism and prove it’s real when it isn’t. I literally feel brain cells dying as I read this bullshit.”

Tiana Dalichov also says on her Twitter account that she is the co-host of “On the Write,” adding in her profile, “Historian. Writer. Conservative.”

Since launching her podcast in early February, she has posted an episode called “The Growth of Islam” and a two-part interview on “The Genetic Roots of Culture.”

In the “Growth of Islam” episode, which is described on her website as, “Tiana will be discussing a recent study conducted by the PEW Research Center which projects that Islam will replace Jews as the nation’s second-largest religious group (after Christians). Join Tiana as she discusses the implications of these projections and tear apart the ideology hell-bent on destroying Western culture.”

She said during that podcast, “It’s just so perplexing watching the world’s strange embracing of Islam while still stubbornly denying the reality of that ideology.”

She also espoused anti-Muslim views in a column for Halsey News:

“Islam does not belong here. It is an ideology built upon the premise of violence. A religion whose followers are taught in the Qu’ran itself to kill nonbelievers and follow the example of a hedonistic cult leader desperate for power and blood,” she wrote. “It clashes with everything this country stands for and puts Western civilization at risk. Speaking the truth about Islam is not bigotry. Being critical of Islam is not racist or Islamophobic.

“Stop apologizing for your religion. Accept what it has shown itself to be for the past 1400 years. Islam has never been a religion of peace, and it never will be. Accept it. The truth will set you free.”

---

2. On the ‘Tiana Dalichov’ Podcast, She Talked About Convincing Administrators She Wasn’t Bringing Bias Into the Classroom & Agreed White Supremacists Should Infiltrate Schools as Teachers

In the latest episode of the “Unapologetic” podcast, Dayanna Volitich talked with Lana Lokteff, who works for Red Ice TV, an organization recently designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“Join @LanaLokteff and I as we tear apart intersectional feminism in this newest episode of the #UnapologeticPodcast. ????,” she tweeted on February 26 along with a link to the podcast. “Addendum: This is an UNCUT episode with 40 minutes of raw awesomeness for you ? ?? Enjoy!”

Volitich talked about being a teacher during the episode. She said when students ask her questions about current events she responds with “unbiased facts.”

But on the podcast episode with Lokteff, Volitich said she lied to her school’s principal about her views after parents complained that she was injecting political bias into the classroom. Volitich said the principal believed her and “backed off,” after the complaints.

Lotkeff said on the podcast that white supremacists need to infiltrate public schools as teachers.

“They don’t have to be vocal about their views, but get in there. Be more covert and just start taking over those places,” Lotkeff said.

Volitich replied, “Right. I’m absolutely one of them.”

Lotkeff talked on the same podcast about how diversity in schools is not a good thing, saying it’s wrong to think a a “kid from Nigeria and a kid who came from Sweden are supposed to learn exactly the same” and said that they don’t have the “same IQ.” Volitich agreed and argued that science has proven certain races are smarter than others.

She also defended a student whose science project concluded African Americans have lower IQs than whites.

“I was like, ‘This is science though,’” she said on the podcast. “This is — so many researchers have already looked into this, and that’s just the way it is. There are races that have higher IQs than others.”

You can listen to the entire podcast here and can listen to clips below:

On the podcast, Volitich said about being a public school educator with white nationalist views, “It’s something that, as a teacher, it’s a tough place to be.” She said she has been “incredibly lucky” to find like-minded co-workers.

She told Lotkeff that she plays by the rules when her supervisors are watching, saying she puts on an act, a “dog-and-pony show,” and said she asks her students to play along.

“But, I’m pretty aware — hyper-aware — that they’ll be watching and that they’ll be listening, so I’m getting a little bit more underhanded as to how I deal with it,” she said about school administrators.

Since HuffPost published its article on Volitich, Lotkeff has defended her on Twitter.

“Another witch hunt! Lefties never wanted diversity of thought/opinion. They are terrified of it because they are weak. They want leftist totalitarian rule where they police everyone for “wrong think.” They are delusional religious zealots who hate nature. They’re not gonna last,” she tweeted.

Bre Faucheux, a nationalist author who has appeared on shows with Volitich, tweeted, “These pieces of trash at the radical left wing rag HuffPo doxed Tiana Dalichov and slandered her! Once again, I suspect two certain individuals handed over her personal info because the fat conservative commentator is the only one who knew her IRL name!”

Lotkeff tweeted to Faucheux, “we all know a leftist can openly say kill all White men & express hate against rightists and never ever get fired or blacklisted.”

---

3. She Had Been a Social Studies Teacher at Crystal River Middle School Since 2016 & Has Recently Attacked the Florida School Shooting Survivors, Including Suggesting It Could Be a Conspiracy

Volitich had been a social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School since 2016. She obtained her temporary teaching license on July 1, 2016, Florida records show. She has a 3-year non-renewable license that is set to expire in June 2019.

“Right now I am an educator,” Volitich, appearing under her pseudonym, said on The Resistance Podcast last year. “I teach 7th grade middle schoolers, which is a challenge in and of itself.”

She said she picked middle school for a reason.

“That age when they first become teenagers is very critical,” she said. “They’ve already been indoctrinated for 12 years before coming to me. Some of them, I believe, were red-pilled as 13-year-olds. And I think that was kind of a cool thing to watch. I was watching them just open their eyes and seeing what is happening in this country.”

On that podcast, she talked about why she wanted to teach civics:

There are so many people that do not understand how our government actually functions. You just look at everything like with the ‘travel ban,’ and everything else that’s been going on. And all of these ill-conceived notions of how our government is supposed to work, that are actually 100 percent off base. And it was infuriating to watch that happen, to see these grown adults not understand how their government actually works. And that’s an extremely dangerous thing, when the adult citizens of a nation do not understand how their country functions on a basic level.

She said she learned about civics she took during history classes in high school and college.

“We all know colleges are liberal cesspools at this point,” she said. “Even then, I was still able to separate the facts from the fiction and understand, ‘this is how the government is supposed to work’ and that was one of the biggest draws for me. … In terms of teaching itself, I feel like that’s what I’m here to do, I’m here to educate people about what the truth is. That could be the truth about algebra, the truth about biology, the truth about religion, whatever. Whatever it is, that’s what I’m here to do, to help people seek truth.”

When asked whether she thinks truth is objective, she said, “There are some things where we can agree there is an objective truth, we just might not be able to reach it. And I believe that in other areas there are personal truths. … The truth of civics is, these are the facts, this is the truth.”

But she said, “I’m not one of those people who is pushing my beliefs. If the kids ask me my opinions about something I would give it. But most of the time, I just say, these are the facts, this is how logic works.”

She also talked about discussing politics in class:

The 2016 election was the school year and I can’t tell you how many times my students would ask me who I voted for. And I said, ‘I’m not going to tell you who I voted for.’ Because if I go that way we’re in big trouble and I can get in serious trouble with my administrators. But if you can figure out who I voted for, you an put the name in this basket on my desk and we’ll see how many of you have figured it out. If you can use logic and pay attention to the things that I believe when we have discussions, and you can figure it out, then I will give your class a reward at the end of the election if you guessed it right. And they all got it right, which was extremely gratifying to me.

It shows me that either A) I’m extremely transparent or B) They were able to pay attention, they were engaging with me, with what I was saying and what we were discussing and they were able to do something with it. And I think that’s what so many teachers are not doing anymore. They’re not truly engaging their students, they’re avoiding the hard topics. They’re avoiding the things we should be talking about. And as a civics teacher I was able to do that. I was able to access those tough discussions and actually engage with the kids on those topics. … The administrators were not around, when those discussions happened, however, the kids really seemed to like them. They appreciated the fact I didn’t censor them in anyway, I let them speak their mind and they were able to kind of get things off their chest and ask questions, questions their parents might give a biased answer for, which I think a lot of them seemed to appreciate.

That’s kind of how I run things in my classroom, I just try to present the facts and we get it from all different sources. We go to different places, we try to figure out what the facts were and once we figure out the facts we say, ‘now what’s the conclusion that we should build based on the facts that we found.’ And then we would talk about it. And that’s pretty much how the class went for 180 days.

Volitich said later in the podcast that she voted for Trump, but she said she doesn’t agree with everything he does and believes.

She said she never had a moment where she decided she wanted to be a teacher, but naturally progressed to that point.

“I realized I wanted to be where that professor was standing, I wanted to be someone that people looked up to, that people respected, that people sought wisdom from, but not in the conventional sense,” she said.

Volitich said on that podcast that the education system is broken:

From within the first couple weeks on the job and before I even got into public education, I knew it was going to be an uphill battle, I knew it was not going to be easy, especially as a conservative teacher teaching civics. I pretty much had all of the dominoes stacked against me on this one. Luckily we had another civics teacher who was just as non-PC as I was. So, the two of us got together quite well and we helped each other out.

There are so many things that are wrong with the system. At this school, I felt like I was jumping through hoops. I was doing a dance more than I was teaching. I was so focused on creating these things that were going to make my administrators happy … I basically bribed them, ‘you better look engaged when they come in here.’ They knew it was all ‘bells and whistles,’ because when I was in there we would just discuss.
I would just say, alright let’s talk. Because that’s the best way to teach, is to engage in conversation.

In the wake of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, which occurred about 275 miles south of Crystal River Middle School, where Volitich teaches, she has defended the NRA, expressed support for the idea of arming teachers, including herself, to protect students and has joined in on the attacks on the shooting survivors who have called for gun control. You can see two of her tweets to David Hogg below:

She also recently questioned whether a Georgia teacher who fired a shot inside a classroom last week was part of a conspiracy to undermine the proposal by President Donald Trump, the NRA and some Republicans to arm teachers.

“Everything that just happened at Dalton High School seems a little too convenient,” she tweeted on February 28. “Maybe that’s just me. ?”

She added, “Looking at all the tweets about Dalton High School INSISTING it isn’t a conspiracy really makes you wonder if it’s actually a conspiracy. ?”

In another tweet she said, “Seems awfully convenient that this happened within a week of the President suggesting teachers be armed. ?”

And then also said, “How convenient that a liberal teacher at Dalton High School decided to barricade himself in his classroom and discharge his firearm only a week after Trump proposed arming teachers. The Left really will stoop low enough to put their agenda above the lives of innocent people.”

The Georgia teacher actually has posted conservative views, and called himself a “Teapublitarian” on social media. The teacher has a history of mental episodes.

On a recent Periscope live stream, she talked about how the incident seemed “staged” and discussed other gun control issues:

She also exchanged messages with students at Dalton High School, criticizing their views.

“If you’re traumatized, why are you even on Twitter right now?” she said to one.

To another, she said, “Just because you are afraid doesn’t mean it wasn’t staged,” and added to a student who called the conspiracy theories utterly cruel, “That doesn’t negate the fact that it was probably a political stunt designed to advance an anti-gun agenda.”

---

4. Volitich Is Originally From the Pittsburgh Area, Graduated From Ohio State University in 2014, Johns Hopkins in 2017 & Wrote a YA Sci-Fi Novel Called ‘Agenda 46’

Dayanna Volitich is originally from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Volitich said she grew up in a house with conservative parents. She attended Hopewell High School, graduating in 2010, according to The Beaver County Times.

She graduated magna cum laude from Ohio State University in 2014 with a degree in American History.

She also wrote on her GoodReads profile under the name Tiana Dalichov that she earned a master’s degree in physiology of the brain from Johns Hopkins University. According to the Johns Hopkins website, Volitich completed her master’s degree in education at the Baltimore university in December 2016 with a focus in “Educational
Leadership for Independent Schools,” and “Mind, Brain and Teaching.”

She has previously worked at her father’s company and as an intern at an orthodontics company. She also has been a private tutor for Kaplan Test Prep Partners.

In an appearance on The Resistance Podcast in June 2017, Volitich talked about how she identifies as a conservative who believes in small government, saying the government should not be involved in anything except for the military, but said she does not call herself a Republican.

“I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, city of champion, I grew up in a mostly conservative household, my parents were very conservative. I am very straight-laced<" she said on The Resistance Podcast. She said she was ingrained with the mindset that you can't rely on others to provide for you and your life is what you make it. "It was drilled in to my head from a very early age. We were told this is the way it should be. You should go out and make your own way in the world, make decisions for yourself, seize opportunities that are there for you and what you make of your life, you can be proud of what you created. Because everything you have become is because of you and because of the actions you took and it's not because someone handed something to you and because someone handed you a participation trophy."

Volitich said during her childhood she didn't get anything unless she earned it first, including her parents' "respect and their trust."

She said she thinks children are now growing up being exposed to conservative views and with conservative parents, and things might shift back to when people knew how to be professional.

"We might end up seeing a trend there, we might see these social skills that we seem to have lost start to come back, at least I hope so," she said.

About her politics, Volitich said, "There are a plethora of issues in politics. I usually consider myself right wing, I consider myself kind of like in the middle of the right wing, I'm not extreme, I'm not very liberal either. However there are certain issues where I will lean more toward the liberal side … On the majority of them, I have a right wing view in the sense that we have limited government, that we have lower taxes, we have less government interference in various areas of our lives. And that pretty much goes for anything, abortion, education, you name it, I would probably say 'get the government out of it,' with the exception of the military of course."

She said she does align with the Republican party, but "I don't identify with the Republican party because then my beliefs are tied to their actions. And that's the kind of thing that is causing a lot of problems right now."

Volitich studied Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian language at Ohio State. She has said she is of Serbian and Russian descent, and has joked on her Twitter profile about being Russian and part of the conspiracy.

“All of my fellow compatriots at Halsey will you tell you that I am the spy of the group. I am the one who has all of the details. I am the one who has all of the intel,” she joked. The host then said, “if you are looking for collusion, ladies and gentlemen, right here, living and breathing proof.”

In 2012, while at Ohio State, she won an award for performing a solo dance from Vranje.

She is also an author of young adult fantasy and science fiction books that she has self-published, including “Agenda 46,” which she promoted on several right wing podcasts and YouTube shows, including 27Crows radio, which says it is fighting against those who are “dispossessing the white race of their history, heritage, culture and countries.”

“Dalichov is also the author of the Keeper of Light trilogy and “Waltz of a Dying Candle,” and is a shamelessly self-proclaimed anime junkie. She currently lives in Crystal River, Florida, with her colony of geckos and poisonous snakes,” she wrote on GoodReads.

On Amazon, she describes “Agenda 46,” as the first in the Rebellion Rising series:

In a land of absolute obedience, one young woman dares to risk it all for freedom in Tiana Dalichov’s riveting sci-fi thriller, Agenda 46. In the year 2141, the United States suffers devastating poverty, oppression, and brutality. Led by Nikolai Azarov, who will go to any extreme to maintain his iron grip on the people, the country has seemingly lost all hope. That is, until nineteen-year-old Danijela Archer heroically rescues a young boy from a public whipping. With her single bold act of defiance, citizens see a chance to be liberated. Now known as “The Lioness,” Danijela continues her work with the rebel group identified as the Order of Helios whose ultimate goal is to assassinate Azarov and return America to its former glory. But when she suddenly begins suffering from bizarre hallucinations and unexpected mood swings, Danijela fears something has gone terribly wrong—especially after she uncovers a top secret government project that proves no one is safe. Danijela will have to fight harder than she ever imagined—against those who would be her friends…and against her own mind.

---

5. The School District Said It Would ‘be Looking into the Statements’ to See if They Violate Its Ethics Code

The Citrus County School District was investigating, according to HuffPost. Scott Hebert, executive director of educational services for the school district, told the website that he could not confirm Tiana Dalichov is Dayanna Volitich, but said the district will be “looking into the statements she made, checking the validity to see if they violate our code of ethics and policy.”

Herbert added, “She does not speak on behalf of the Citrus County School District. The views she’s listed are really not in line with how our district operates.”

It is not clear if that investigation has concluded or if it will continue now that she has resigned.

The school where Volitich worked is 90 percent white, according to HuffPost. Only about 4 percent of students there are black and 3 percent are Hispanic.

The school district’s social media pages were flooded with comments calling for Volitich to be fired, while many have shared contact information for district and school officials, encouraging others to contact them and ask for Volitich to be removed from the school.

A social studies teacher at Crystal River High School, also a part of the Citrus County school district, retired in 2017 before he could be disciplined for using inappropriate language in the classroom. That teacher, Andreas Zybell, who had worked at the high school for 16 years, called Trump supporters, “white trash, uneducated and redneck,” during a November 2017 class, according to the Citrus County Chronicle.

Zybell would have been disciplined if he had not retired, the newspaper reports.