PUSD Superintendent Confirms Acting Principal at San Rafael School

Veronica Villagrana will serve as Acting Principal at San Rafael Elementary School until further notice according to Pasadena Unified Superintendent Brian McDonald.

Principal Rudy Ramirez has been at the center of a controversy for two weeks surrounding profanity-laced racial comments he made against local white neighbors and children living near the school that were captured on video.

Last Thursday, the Board of Education discussed the matter in closed session after hearing from dozens of parents.

Sunday, McDonald told Pasadena Now the decision to put an acting principal in place was “totally” his decision.

Villagrana has previously served as Assistant Principal at Willard Elementary.

Ramirez’s Aug. 14 comments were captured on the body-worn camera of a security officer who was supporting police who had been called to the campus after a caller reported seeing someone scale the fence to get onto school grounds.

Arriving officers searching the facility briefly detained the school’s head custodian after pointing non-lethal weapons at him. The officers handcuffed the custodian for six and a half minutes until they could identify him. A police source said officers followed standard procedures.

Ramirez arrived shortly afterwards.

“This is fucking bullshit they should not be handcuffing one of my janitors,” Ramirez said to the security officer. “I bet if he was white he wouldn’t have been treated like that … fuck these nosy ass white neighbors, how about when it was white kids jumping the fence vandalising [sic] classrooms and drawing dicks on the walls and leaving beer cans on the roof, no one calls.”

The entire incident set off a firestorm among police critics and school board members, including some that accused the police of racism.

City officials defended the actions of the police.

Ramirez later issued an apology for his words.

“In this moment of fear, anger, confusion and pain, I made some offensive and inappropriate comments in the presence of a Metro Patrol Officer who had his body camera on without my knowledge. I am deeply ashamed of the language that I used and some of the things that I said.”