California school principal apologizes for sending an email warning about a Black man at a Starbucks
A Southern California school principal is apologizing for sending parents an email about a Black man who allegedly followed a student at a nearby Starbucks.
A forum will be held Monday after La Jolla Elementary School principal Donna Trippi said this week it was a mistake to send a description that “unintentionally perpetuated stereotypes,” according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Last month, Tripi warned parents about a man she described as “an African American male about 30 years old, about 6’1”-6’-2”, dressed in all black and a hooded sweatshirt.” She advised parents to call the police “if you see something that doesn’t feel right.”
Yet, in a follow-up email to parents this week, Tripi said she made a mistake to send a description that was stereotypical. This incident comes more than six months after the outrage when two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting for a business partner. That incident led to the men receiving a settlement with Starbucks, a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs, and the coffee giant providing racial bias training for its thousands of employees.
“While it is critical to keep our school family safe, the way I communicated didn’t provide enough specifics to identify the individual, but could easily lead to unnecessary and harmful reactions against other members of our community,” Tripi wrote. “African American males continue to face discrimination in our society every day. The thought that I unintentionally contributed to that climate with a vague email is something for which I owe our community an apology.”
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The principal maintained that a parent who recounted the incident to her had a legitimate concern.
This still doesn’t satisfy Andre Branch, the president of the San Diego NAACP, who told the newspaper he has issues with Tripi’s emails.
“This apology is as disturbing as the original email,” Branch said. “She repeats the description of the man, mentioning his race, but not that of the parents or the children. This repetition reinforces the idea that the parents and their children have something to fear from African American men.
“They have no more to fear from African American males than they do from white males in hoodies or white males in suits and ties, “ he continued. “If their concern had nothing to do with this man’s race, it would have not been mentioned.”
Among the 535 students enrolled at La Jolla Elementary last fall, five were Black, according to state data, the newspaper reports. The school also didn’t have any black teachers last school year, and out of 31 teachers, 28 were white, the state data shows.
Amie Zamudio, a white 40-year La Jolla resident and activist with San Diego’s Racial Justice Coalition and Showing Up for Racial Justice, told the newspaper that she hopes Monday’s meeting will “segue past a one-hour meeting, and have a real discussion about our bias.”
