School worker who removed mask to cough on baby loses her job, California district says
A California school district employee has lost her job after a video showed her removing her mask and coughing on a baby at a yogurt shop, according to the school district.
“We want to inform our community that the District employee who was alleged to have engaged in this conduct is no longer an employee of our District,” Oak Grove School District said in a statement. “The Oak Grove School District’s highest priority is the safety of our students and the well-being of all of the children in the community we serve.”
The school district did not identify the former employee.
Security camera footage at a Yogurtland in San Jose shows a woman pulling down her face mask and coughing into a baby’s face. The baby boy, who was in a stroller, and his mother were in line behind the suspect.
The incident occurred on June 12 and an investigation found that the suspect was “upset the female was not maintaining proper social distancing, so the suspect removed her face mask, got close to the baby’s face, and coughed 2-3 times,” according to a San Jose Police Department in a news release.
The suspect, described by police as a white woman in her 60s, hasn’t been arrested, according to the release.
“It happened so quick I was in shock,” said Mireya Mora, the baby’s mother, KGO reported. “She got close, she took off her mask, and she coughed three times super hard on my son’s face.”
Mora told KGO she believes the incident was motivated by racism.
“I believe this woman may be racist because the family in front of her is white. Me and my grandma are Hispanic and she started telling me about my distance and harassing me and my son once I started speaking Spanish to my grandma,” Mora said.
San Jose police are seeking assistance with identifying the woman on suspicion of assault, according to a news release.
The Oak Grove School District has more than 9,800 students, with three intermediate schools and 14 elementary schools.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said last week that the state’s face mask order is mandatory, The Sacramento Bee reported.
More than 2.9 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 130,000 people have died from the virus in the U.S. as of July 6.
San Jose Jose police has asked anyone with information to contact Detective Dan Bowman of the San Jose Police Department’s Assaults Unit at 408-277-4161.
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 5:04 PM with the headline "School worker who removed mask to cough on baby loses her job, California district says."