The e-mail message sent to a Gilroy High School math teacher
that was riddled with vulgar threats and ethnic slurs is not only
despicable, it’s dangerous. It doesn’t matter if the sender meant
the message as a prank or a promise.
The e-mail message sent to a Gilroy High School math teacher that was riddled with vulgar threats and ethnic slurs is not only despicable, it’s dangerous. It doesn’t matter if the sender meant the message as a prank or a promise.
Especially in light of incidents of violence at schools in recent weeks – most of which, we note, happened in suburban and rural schools, not urban ones – we trust all the authorities are taking the message seriously.
Gilroy police and Gilroy Unified School District officials need to work together to identify whoever sent that vile message, and if it’s a student or employee, get them off campus immediately. This community cannot afford to treat such incidents lightly.
Even if the sender meant it as some sort of sick prank, he or she has a lot of built-up hate, a stunning lack of judgment and needs some serious help. And the sender needs to be separated from the rest of the GHS community, whose sense of safety and well-being was violated by the contents of that message.
And because there’s possibility that the sender is serious and plans to carry out those vicious threats, every effort needs to be made to identify and prosecute the sender. That means that even if every student and coworker of the recipient must be interviewed to determine their motive and opportunity to send such an abhorrent message, that work needs to be done posthaste.
GHS has a hard enough time attracting and retaining math teachers without this kind of hostility directed at its instructors. With a shooting threat and lockdown in GHS’s recent history, and horrific school violence filling national news reports, parents worry enough about their children’s safety without this kind of heinous hate mail provoking more concern.
District officials and police must find whoever sent the threatening and racist e-mail message and make sure everyone understands this is not considered a “prank” but a crime.
The sooner the better.
