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Activists from racial equality and immigrant rights group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) will call for the reinstatement of a Berkeley middle school teacher at a school board meeting this evening, an attorney representing BAMN said. 

Yvette Felarca, a teacher at Martin Luther King Middle School, can be seen in a widely shared YouTube video attacking a demonstrator at a neo-Nazi rally in Sacramento on June 26. 

On June 29, Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) superintendent Donald Evans and school board president Beatriz Leyva-Cutler issued a statement condemning Felarca's actions at the protest. 

"It is important to state that we do not support the use of violence in confronting free speech. We want our students to learn critical thinking skills and be able to engage in thoughtful and informed debate," Evans and Leyva-Cutler said in their statement. 

"While we may find beliefs espoused by racist and anti-immigrant organizations to be abhorrent, there are productive ways to respond to hate speech that do not involve violence," Evans and Leyva-Cutler said. 

Felarca was placed on administrative leave Sept. 21, BAMN attorney Ronald Cruz said.  

"BUSD's decision to discipline and suspend me for my off-duty political activities and my political affiliations and activism place Berkeley on the wrong side of the historic struggle to stop the rise of the far-right wing and their violent attacks," Felarca said in a statement. 

BAMN activists will hold a rally at BUSD's administration building at 6:30 p.m., followed by a "speak-out" to the school board during public comment at the meeting.