Kevin Bean teaches fifth and sixth grade in Pennsylvania's Spring-Ford Area School District. He's known in the small community outside Philadelphia as a "good guy" with close ties to his local church. But Bean has an alter ego: In the world of amateur wrestling, he's "Blitzkrieg," a Nazi-themed brawler who chants "sieg heil," waves a flag bearing an Iron Cross, and flashes his fans a Nazi salute as part of his routine.
Bean's character is apparently supposed to be a heel: a trash-talking, audience-riling villain crowds love to hate. But the "German Juggernaut" actually seems to have a lot of fans, including some who throw up the Nazi salute when he saunters into a match or make signs in German that say "Blitzkrieg Herrscher Aller MENSCHEN" ("Blitzkrieg ruler of all people"). And according to the owner of his local wrestling association, some of Bean's students have even been known to come out and root for him.
But now Bean's school district is apparently looking into his extracurricular activities. According to the Philly Voice, Bean's school district has launched an investigation into his controversial wrestling career after footage from one of his matches surfaced on Twitter. Dr. David Goodin, Spring-Ford's superintendent, penned a letter about the video Monday, refusing to go into details about the case, but saying that the probe was "ongoing."
"I want to assure you that the actions portrayed in this video do not represent the core values of the school district," Goodin wrote. "As an educational organization, we pride ourselves in providing a safe and nurturing learning environment."
In an interview with the Blast, World Wide Wrestling Alliance owner Dino Sanna described Bean as "not a hateful person," defending the whole Nazi thing as a "gimmick," something "everyone has" in wrestling. Sure, that's true: But aren't there other ways to piss off a roomful of wrestling fans than screaming "sieg heil" at them in a shirt with an SS lightning bolt on it? All it really takes to be a good heel is playing dirty: Poking somebody in the eyes, or breaking a chair over their back. In the world of amateur wrestling, you can even just throw on a Hillary Clinton shirt and call yourself a liberal.
Maybe Bean thought "Blitzkrieg" would make for the perfect heel: There's nothing more detestable than a literal Nazi, right? But at a time when neo-Nazism is a real movement in America, saluting Hitler and shouting "sieg heil" in front of a bunch of cheering children doesn't seem so satirical.
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