San Francisco schools oust vice president for ‘harmful’ tweets

A San Francisco school board official under fire for racist tweets against Asian Americans has been ousted from her position after she refused to resign.

Alison Collins, who is Black, was stripped of her role Thursday as vice president of the San Francisco Board of Education in a 5-2 vote of no-confidence, the board announced in a statement.

Collins was also removed from all committees of the San Francisco Board of Education for the duration of her term, effectively immediately.

The “assertion of no-confidence” resolution cited Collins’ “inflammatory statements” she made on Twitter toward Asian Americans in 2016 that perpetuated “gross and harmful” stereotypes and left no room for misunderstanding.

“Our relationship with elected officials must be predicated on mutual respect, and when our elected officials falter, we are faced with the difficult decision of how to hold them accountable,” the resolution read.

The vote came less than a week after the school district’s entire senior staff denounced Collins for tweeting in 2016 that Asian American teachers, students and parents had used “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead.’”

In other tweets, Collins compared Asian Americans to “house n—–s” and invoked stereotypes like “tiger moms,” KPIX reported.

The posts were made two years before Collins was elected, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. She had apologized for the pain they caused, but declined to admit they were racist while claiming her words were misconstrued.

“But whether my tweets are being taken out of context or not, only one thing matters right now,” Collins said in a statement Saturday. “And that is the pain our Asian-American brothers and sisters are experiencing. Words have meaning and impact.”

Collins on Thursday declined to speak on the tweets or the contents of the resolution that ousted her — saying that it is a distraction.

“This resolution distracts from priority matters,” she told the newspaper, in reference to reopening schools and replacing the district’s outgoing superintendent.

“This resolution does nothing to enhance our team. I reject the attempts to mischaracterize me as a person and a member of this board.”

Nearly 5,000 people, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, had signed a petition calling on Collins to step down.