SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Recently, embattled San Francisco Education Commissioner, Ann Hsu held a virtual meeting with SFUSD parents, titled “A Conversation with the Commissioner.”
Members of the San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club were not invited.
The vice president of the club, Kevin Ortiz, says that’s a big problem because Hsu vowed to commit to listening, learning and growing as a person in the wake of saying that a lack of family support and unstable family environments cause Black and brown students not to value learning.
“At the end of the day, the Latino community, there’s many stories of immigration because they came to the U.S. in hopes for a better life for their children,” said Ortiz. “That includes an education path where they could succeed and thrive. We need someone who understands these issues from the ground up, who is ready to go, hit the ground running.”
“How can we have someone dictate policy when they have certain beliefs about a community or an inherent bias? That is why we came out pretty early on calling for the resignation of the commissioner.”
SFUSD African American Parent Advisory Council member, LaToya Pitcher was among the Black parents invited to the meeting with Commissioner Hsu.
“She did not apologize to us. She apologized that we felt that way. She didn’t acknowledge her racism. She didn’t apologize for her comments and the harm that her comments caused us,” Pitcher said.
Also, in attendance was NAACP member and SFUSD parent Bivett Brackett Thompson.
“I was more concerned. She already acknowledged that she has an anti-Black bias, and Latinx bias that she can’t control,” said Thompson.
KRON On is streaming live news now
This is not the first time that Black SFUSD parents took exception to similiar comments. Another incident occurred at a meeting back in 2016.
Several San Francisco supervisors are calling for Ann Hsu to step down, but the city’s top official doesn’t seem ready to make that move.
“The San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club is asking for the mayor to step up and call for the resignation of Commissioner Hsu,” said Ortiz. “ We need to have someone who represents all communities in the Unified School District and not just one or two communities.”
KRON4 reached out to Commissioner Hsu to give her an opportunity to be a part of this conversation but has yet to receive a reply.
