Viral video footage of an alleged road rage incident in New York painted an ugly picture of one teacher and youth baseball coach. Matthew Kevelson recorded teacher Juan Ynoa in the midst of a homophobic rant that made the rounds on social media last week, causing ire in the community and Ynoa to lose his job.
Kevelson alleged Ynoa was driving recklessly when he began to record him. Ynoa had choice words for the musician. The administration at Flushing High School was seemingly not a fan of what the teacher had to say. The district removed Ynoa from his duties working with children, and he lost his coaching job too. His temper apparently got the best of him and dramatically changed his life.
Kevelson claimed the incident began with a honk.
The musician, who goes by Mattykevs on Instagram, told NBC New York that the incident occurred on September 5, when Ynoa allegedly crossed multiple lanes in traffic and Kevelson tried to get his attention.
“So I honked on my horn for all of 2 Mississippi,” Kevelson said. He wasn’t expecting Ynoa to react so viciously.
It's what happened next that was most concerning to Kevelson.
He began recording Ynoa and the woman in the passenger seat, as the former teacher started his homophobic rant. The video captures Ynoa clearly saying, “Hey, jerk off! What’s up, you f—ing jerk off?”
He then flashes a smile as his female passenger laughs, and shouts, “I’ll rape your f—ing a–, you fa—t.”
Then, Ynoa gets out of the car.
He tells Kevelson, “You’re messing with the wrong dude” and seems to pull away. But he was actually just moving up his car. He got out to take a photo of the musician’s license plate. At that point, Kevelson said he’d had enough and pulled away. He released the video hoping to prove his innocence.
“This guy had filmed my license plate, my car, who knows if this person would retaliate against me. So posting it was almost a form of protection in case anything happened,” he told NBC New York.
Ynoa's nasty words may have cost him his career.
The New York Department of Education said the teacher was moved “away from students,” according to NBC New York. It is still unclear in what capacity the district is using him. Ynoa was also removed from his coaching duties with New York Longhorns Baseball, a youth organization.
“The actions, words and sentiments expressed by the former member do not align in any way with the Longhorns core values and mission to provide a positive and supportive place for baseball players to develop into young adults both on and off the field,” a Facebook post from the organization reads in part.
The whole incident has a lot of people confused.
Kevelson said Ynoa has no business acting like he did.
“This guy is around children. If he’s a coach, if he’s a teacher in the community, a leader of the community, he can’t be acting like that in public,” he told NBC New York.
Social media users agreed. X user @davenewway_2, posted the video on the platform, where it has been viewed 9.5 million times. Comments condemning Ynoa abound.
“Bro, why are people raging so much right now? Whose noticed more of this like me?” someone asked.
People were shocked at his choice of words. “Out of all the things he could say???? Why would he go with this one?” another comment on the tweet reads.
Others wanted to know why the woman in the car was laughing. Someone commented, “I just wanna know what’s so funny in the passenger seat?”
“Hope they’re still smiling, when they find out they’re going viral,” another X user commented.
Despite answering an email from NBC New York with the reply “Now is not a good time” and saying he would tell his story the next day, Ynoa reportedly never got back to the news station.
