A public school volleyball coach from Chicago has resigned from her position amid widespread backlash over the remarks she made about vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s son on her radio show last week.
The school district confirmed Amy Jacobson had quit her job at Amundsen High School after making derogatory comments about Gus Walz on the WIND-AM radio broadcast she co-hosts with Dan Proft on Aug. 22.
On the third night of the DNC, the 17-year-old garnered attention with his emotional reaction to seeing his father on stage, exclaiming, “That’s my dad!,” with tears streaming down his face as Tim Walz accepted the Democratic party’s nomination.
A day later on her and Proft’s “Chicago’s Morning Answer,” Jacobson mimicked Gus Walz’s emotional response as Proft played a 1994 “Saturday Night Live” clip of Chris Farley portraying a young Andrew Giuliani gushing over his dad, Rudy Giuliani, portrayed by Kevin Nealon.
“That’s exactly what that Walz kid did,” Proft said. “I mean, he’s not 11. He’s 17.”
Critics called Jacobson’s and Proft’s comments insensitive, and many Amundsen parents demanded Jacobson be fired from her coaching position, The Chicago Tribune reported.
“As a system, we are committed to serving all students and we strive to ensure a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment, free of any bias, discrimination or harassment. We strongly disagree with any remarks contrary to those values,” a Chicago Public Schools spokesman said regarding Jacobson.
In an exclusive statement to ‘People’ earlier this month, Tim and Gwen Walz discussed how Gus lives with a learning disorder that’s said to limit a person’s ability to read social cues, describing the teen’s condition as his “secret power.”
Jacobson later publicly apologized, saying on air that she would have “reacted differently if I had the additional information,” adding: “I had no idea he had any type of learning disability or ADHD.”
Following his remarks, Proft has also lost his board position with Envision Unlimited, an organization that describes itself as providing care for people with intellectual, developmental and psychiatric disabilities. In a statement released Sunday provided to WGN, the organization without naming Proft said a board member “made comments that were wholly inconsistent with our values and code of ethics as an organization and at their core insensitive and insulting to the very people and families that we serve.”
