On Thursday night, we received the following tweet from @abruptlyalonzo:
Apparently this educators think that Mexicans have low IQ and are dirty from Rubidoux High School @e_espinosa @latinorebels pic.twitter.com/LzzGDZiPTS
— alonzorivers (@abruptlyalonzo) February 17, 2017
It showed screen grabs of public Facebook posts from what appeared to be high school teachers celebrating the fact that some of their students were out of school during the “Day Without Immigrants” protest.
We did a little more digging and came across this public Facebook post by Guadalupe Lopez:
We were about to find out who these teachers were when we then learned that KTLA published a story about the posts on Thursday night. Here is what KTLA has reported:
A Riverside County school district is investigating a series of social media posts made by teachers Thursday saying the absence of students participating in the nationwide A Day Without Immigrants strike created a more productive classroom environment.
The school in question was Rubidoux High School. KTLA shared the names of the teachers and also wrote that social science teacher Geoffrey Greer deleted the original post and then wrote this apology:
“While I stand by my assertion that skipping school is no way to demonstrate one’s value to society, I do apologize for the harsh tone and hurtful structure of the previous message.”
Jurupa Unified School District also issued this statement about the posts and the reaction to them:
JUSD Response To “A Day without Immigrants” Comments
The safety and security of Jurupa Unified School District’s students is our first and most important obligation as a school district. A number of teachers have made social media postings regarding “A Day without Immigrants.” First, these postings absolutely do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the school district. District staff are currently investigating how to respond to this issue. We will be on site to meet with students tomorrow morning. Neither the Board, nor staff, had any forewarning that such comments would be posted. We want to express that we are deeply concerned and distressed about the postings. We will investigate further and will take appropriate action in this matter.
Elliott Duchon, Superintendent
UPDATE, February 18, 2017: Rubidoux High School students and supporters protested the teachers’ actions on Friday. There was also a Facebook love video of Superintendent Duchon speaking with the community, who are one point said that the teachers were on paid leave:
