An official from the California city of Coronado near San Diego has been put on leave and his wife, a private school teacher, has been fired after a viral TikTok showed the couple spewing anti-Asian slurs.
The video, filmed in a parking lot in nearby Newport Beach, shows Roger Miller and his wife Sandra Miller making racist statements against Asians, including comments about Chinese people being responsible for COVID-19.
See the video below.
WARNING: offensive language
from PublicFreakout
In the video, Sandra Miller can be heard saying:
“I love that we are not in their country. I love that we are not communism. I love that very much... America is a free country. Go back to China.”
As word began to spread about the video, both Sandra's and Roger's employers quickly responded.
The city of Coronado, where Roger Miller is director of recreation and golf services, took swift action, with Coronado City Manager Tina Friend issuing a statement in which she confirmed Roger Miller had been placed on administrative leave "pending an independent, full and fair investigation.''
Friend went on to say:
"Our city's culture and values are core to who we are and that culture is based on professionalism, service and respect. We take matters such as this extremely seriously and the City has zero tolerance for all forms of discrimination.''
For Sandra Miller, the consequences were far more stiff.
Her employer, Linfield Christian School in nearby Temecula, California, immediately terminated Sandra Miller.
The school addressed her termination in an online statement, which read:
"After speaking with Ms. Miller regarding the incident, Linfield has terminated her employment immediately. The statements made by Ms. Miller do not reflect the beliefs of Linfield, are inconsistent with Linfield’s mission statement and fail to meet the behavior Linfield expects employees to model for its students.”
On social media, people were appalled by the Millers behaviors and applauded their employers for swift action.
But some felt Roger Miller's consequences of administrative leave were far too lenient.
The state of California has seen a staggering increased in anti-Asian hate crimes since the pandemic began, with the state seeing a 107% increase in 2020 alone, the last year for which statistics have been published.
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