A California school official has been placed on leave after a video surfaced in which he can be heard saying “I just don’t like the black kids.”
Joe DiFilippo, vice principal of Scandinavian Middle School in Fresno, California, was recorded by a student outside the school cafeteria, district spokesman Jed Chernabaeff told the Fresno Bee.
The full clip, which can be seen below, was posted on YouTube on Friday and shows a man identified as DiFilippo leaning against a pole while several kids speak, mostly off camera.
“Who at this school do you not like?” one of the off-camera students asks. Kids continue to talk, with one saying something that sounds like “me… all of us, all of us.”
After about 10 seconds, DiFilippo says, “I just don’t like the black kids.”
The clip ends suddenly and it’s not clear if he was attempting to make a joke. If he was, parents aren’t laughing.
“That’s not a joke,” Latricia Medley, who has a child in the school, told ABC 30. “That’s not a very funny joke.”
Medley told the station that she had spoken to DiFilippo before the incident and never got the sense that he was racist. Now, however, she wants him fired.
She’s not alone.
“If he said it, he needs to be fired,” Ann Frank, who also has a child in the school, told the Fresno Bee.
Some African-American students told the paper they felt targeted by DiFilippo because of their skin color.
The district told the media that DiFilippo will be on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated. According to Transparent California, DiFilippo earns $87,449.44 per year in salary and benefits.
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