A principal at a middle school in Fresno, Calif., has come under fire for saying “I just don’t like black kids” in a video taken on the cell phone of a student.
Scandinavian Middle School Vice Principal Joe DiFilippo was put on paid administrative leave while an outside investigator gathers facts and makes a “credible determination,” according to the Fresno Bee.
After the investigation, Fresno Unified spokesman Jed Chernabaeff says administrators will decide DiFilippo’s future with the district.
In the video that was posted on YouTube, DiFilippo wears dark sunglasses and stands casually against a pole outside the school cafeteria talking with a student. A young voice is heard asking, “Mr. DiFilippo, who at this school do you not like?” Another voice responds “All of us.” Following a flurry of inaudible comments, DiFilippo says, “I just don’t like black kids.”
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Joke, Or Real?
I'm not one who believes that racial jokes should never be made. On the other hand, when such a joke is made it should be very clear that it's a joke--and in the video here I can't tell at all whether he's joking or not:
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I'm prepared to accept that this may have been a joke -- but that's not a joke administrators get to make in front of students. MAYBE a teacher could get away with something like that, if they have exceptional rapport with their students -- including black kids. And I know, because I'm almost positive I've done something similar, and never received a complaint. But administrators don't have that rapport … and the fact that someone was filming him suggests that it was not an isolated incident.
It seems clear to me that he knew he was being recorded which is why I think it had to have been a bad joke.
You're right that administrators don't often have the rapport with students that would allow everyone to know that was a joke, and jr. high kids--full as they are of drama--would make much more of it than high school students would even if it *were* a joke.
Either way, he should have known better.
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