S.F. school board votes to remove Collins as VP in wake of 2016 tweets that demeaned Asian Americans

The San Francisco Board of Education on March 25 in a vote of no confidence agreed to remove Commissioner Alison Collins from her role as vice president of the board a week after derogatory Twitter comments she made about Asian Americans resurfaced.

During a special board meeting, commissioners voted 5-2 on the resolution to remove Collins from her post, with both Collins and Board President Gabriela Lopez voting against the resolution.

The resolution was drafted by commissioners Jenny Lam and Faauuga Moliga, the two AAPI members of the board.

“Although Commissioner Collins has acknowledged that her words may have caused pain, her public statements to-date have fallen short of sincere recognition of the harm she has caused and Vice President Collins does not seem to take meaningful responsibility for her actions,” the resolution read.

Collins called the resolution to oust her as vice president distracting to the board’s goals of working to reopen schools and finding a new superintendent.

“The resolution put forth at this time and in this manner distracts from our purposes and causes additional risks of delaying this extremely important process and potentially destabilizes the district,” Collins said. “I reject the attempts to mischaracterize me as a person and as a member of this board.”

In a 2016 Twitter thread, Collins addressed anti-Black racism at her daughter’s Asian American majority school but used derogatory terms like “tiger moms” and “house n****r” to refer to Asian Americans. She also accused Asian Americans of using “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead.’”

When the old tweets were brought to light in mid-March, they were met with outrage and calls from several city leaders for Collins to step down, including both Lam and Moliga. Collins has since apologized for her past comments, but many community members have said her statements aren’t sufficient.

Collins said March 23, “I’d like to reemphasize my sincere and heartfelt apologies and I’m currently engaging with my colleagues and working with the community for the good of all children in our district, and especially Black children who are often left behind.”