Six employees of southern California’s Rubidoux High School in the Jurupa Unified School District have been suspended after comments they made online about how “great” the school day was on the so-called “Day Without Immigrants” came to light.
Rubidoux is located about 40 miles from Los Angeles and is approximately 70% of the student body is Hispanic. It seems many of these students did not come to school on the day in question, last Thursday.
According to The Washington Post, the comments — by five teachers and one guidance counselor — ranged from “best school day ever” and “[it] was a very pleasant day” to “Let’s do this more often.”
Other remarks dealt with how the school cafeteria was “much cleaner,” that there were fewer “discipline issues,” and one teacher said his class’s collective GPA “increased today.”
When students found out about the comments, they walked out of class in protest the next day. They also blasted the remarks on social media.
“I wish you guys were in our shoes … you guys have it easy … you guys think we’re not scared of any minute we get left without parents … why are you guys looking at it as a few students missing school and making your day better,” one Facebook user responded, tagging [teachers Robin] Riggle and [Allen] Umbarger.
“To label people that are down to their last options as drunks or plain lazy is naive. Just because your struggles were different doesn’t make ours any less. To talk down on something because you don’t understand is a shame. You guys should really show what you fell about your students because there is plenty of people that look up to you guys. I damn well DID,” another one wrote, tagging Umbarger.
Images of both Facebook users’ responses to the teachers’ comments have been widely shared.
In a statement Friday, the school district announced that the six employees were placed on administrative leave.
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District Superintendent Elliott Duchon said in a statement that the social-media posts did not reflect “the opinions or beliefs of the school district” and that officials were investigating.
“Neither the Board, nor staff, had any forewarning that such comments would be posted,” Duchon said. “We want to express that we are deeply concerned and distressed about the postings.”
School board President Robert Garcia echoed Duchon’s words.
“I am aware of and deeply understand the fears and concerns of our students,” Garcia said in a statement. “I am calling on members of our community to come together to assure that our schools remain safe and our student’s voices are heard.”
In a Facebook post, [teacher Geoffrey] Greer apologized for how his message was received and acknowledged that it had “infuriated a great many people,” according to the Riverside Press Enterprise.
In the teachers’ defense, former Dept. of Education attorney Hans Bader points to the case Thompson v. Board of Education of Chicago in which a teacher successfully had disciplinary measures taken against her overturned for (her) alleged anti-Hispanic comments.
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