Isa Obradovich says an anti-ICE video cost her Ohio placement

Isa Obradovich was working one-on-one with a student when she was pulled from the classroom, told her placement was terminated and escorted out with her belongings, she said.

It was the morning of January 13, the day after she posted a video denouncing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the fifth day of the student-teaching placement Ohio requires for a teaching license.

The video continued a series in which Obradovich publicly declines brand sponsorships she considers unethical, she told Urgent Matter.

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In it, she declined a repeat offer from the furniture retailer Wayfair, saying she would not endorse companies that support ICE. She pointed to NPR’s 2019 report on Wayfair employees who protested the company’s sale of furniture to a government contractor operating a migrant detention facility.

She said “fuck ICE” and closed the video holding up her middle finger while saying agents “should k-,” implying they should kill themselves.

Obradovich described the removal in written responses to Urgent Matter’s standardized artist questionnaire, which asks about conditions shaping artists’ work. She answered from Paris, where she recently moved.

Obradovich said the district ended the placement after parents complained about the video, and that she then chose not to pursue another placement, which the state requires for licensure. She declined to identify the district, saying she did not want it to face public backlash, and said she has kept the video public.

She said she found the response disproportionate.

“Personally, I think that it’s absurd that I have received more consequences for my video than the ICE agents who have been recorded actually killing people without reason in broad daylight,” she said. “Maybe my wording could have been more tactful, sure.”