photo courtesy of SFGATE
The vice principal at Sunnyside High School in Fresno, California, is under investigation after being caught in a TikTok video calling the people recording him “ghetto girls” and “Section 8 people.” According to Fresno Bee, Fred Veendendaal was put on paid leave on Monday, April 24.
The Unified School District was made aware of the almost 30-second video clip where Veenendaal was captured talking on the phone with someone before engaging in an argument with the person filming behind the camera. The person taking the video was heard saying, “We’re minors,” and repeatedly asked Veenendaal why he kept harassing and bothering them. The vice principal responded by speaking into the phone, “Officer. You got three girls here. Three Section 8 people. Ghetto girls.” It hasn’t been confirmed whether or not he was on the phone with the police because no authorities arrived on the scene.
The school responded to the outcry surrounding the incident in a statement to SFGATE, although parents of the children found it unsatisfactory. The statement read, “We are aware of the video circulating, and the District started an investigation into the matter early Monday. The labels used in the video do not align with the high standards we have for our Fresno Unified leaders and staff. Because this is a personnel matter, we will not be able to disclose any resulting information from the investigation. We want to assure our families that having respectful, inclusive, and loving adults serving in our school is of the utmost importance to Sunnyside and our district as a whole.”
The mother of one of the girls that Veenendaal harassed and called “ghetto”, Monica Parker, spoke up and demanded that the Sunnyside High School district fire the vice principal for his appalling behavior towards her daughter and the rest of the kids in the TikTok video.
“He should know better,” Parker said on the Thursday following the incident, “He works with kids every day.” She mentioned that her family is looking to obtain legal representation following the incident.
“It’s hard for her to sleep at night because of this. So many kids are getting killed by adults (who are) racially profiling them,” she continued, referencing the tragic shooting of Ralph Yarl in Kansas City.
“We work with kids every day. They shouldn’t have that type of assumption in their heart, or hate, or whatever that was that he had towards those girls for no reason.”
More people spoke up and called for the school to terminate Veenendaal’s contract. Tyrone Roderick Williams, the CEO of the Fresno Housing Authority, cited his authority of working with thousands of kids in the school district when speaking to the education board about the severity of what happened. He said, “Using the housing status of a child – or economic status of a family – as a slur is low. I am a father of two Black daughters,” he pointed out, “and I know that statements such as those made by the vice principal devalue and stigmatize children.”
Central Valley Urban Institute’s Executive Director Eric Payne spoke at that same board meeting. Payne expressed his concern over an arising pattern in the Fresno Unified School District,
“This is not the only isolated incident where Black students in Fresno Unified have been targeted and dehumanized because of insensitivity and bias because of anti-Black behaviors.”
Payne finished, “Students provided the district with a list of recommendations on how they can be supported, and the system has kind of sat on that. There’s been little to no implementation, even a year later.”