A “gentle giant” or a reflection of the Nazi character he portrays as a professional wrestler? Whatever the answer, there’s no question that parents in the Spring-Ford Area School District have strong opinions on Kevin Bean as a sixth-grade teacher.

He’s the teacher who, until recently, had a side job as a professional wrestler playing a “heel” called “Blitzkreig: the German Juggernaut” who, videos showed, waved a German flag with the Iron Cross, gave the Nazi salute and shouted “Sieg Heil!” before matches. But that was an act and not the person he is in real life, said the majority of the 29 people who spoke Monday night at the end of the Spring-Ford Area School Board meeting, writes Evan Brandt in the Pottstown Mercury.

Bean is no longer wrestling, and said teaching is his passion, not wrestling.

“The sensationalized character the media has accused me of being is misleading. I do not believe in or support the philosophies of anti-Semitism or hatred in any way,” Bean wrote in his statement. “I am truly remorseful for the pain and discomfort this character has brought people, for that was never my intent.”

Bean said in his statement that “this character no longer exists, nor will he re-appear at any point in the future.”

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