An employee of Linfield Christian School in Temecula has been fired after she was seen in a viral video making a racist comment against Asians.
“Go back to China!” Sandra Miller is heard saying in the video. “America is a free country!!”
Miller and her apparent husband, an employee for the city of Coronado in San Diego County, are seen in the now-deleted TikTok video walking to their car in a parking structure at an unknown location.
In the video, picked up by another TikTok user and reshared online on other social media, Miller is heard saying she is glad that America is “not communism,” and “not their country,” apparently referring to the people who shot the video.
Public records list the pair as living at the same Temecula address. They could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 1.
It’s not known when the incident — which went viral over the weekend — occurred.
Coronado’s website lists Roger Miller as its director of recreation and golf services. A city statement, which doesn’t include a name, confirms a city employee is on leave because of a video.
Roger Miller’s LinkedIn page states that he graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, attended Riverside Community College, was a former baseball manager at Linfield Christian’s middle school and was a treasurer and manager with Temecula Valley Little League.
“This racist couple started calling us racial slurs out of nowhere and blamed Asians for starting COVID,” a caption on the TikTok video states. “They continued to say racist comments loudly for us to hear, so we confronted them.”
Later, the people filming the video — who are not shown — tell the couple that they are not from China.
“I love that we are not their country, right?” Miller asks the man in the video, before approaching a car. “I love that we are not communism — I love that very much.”
“After speaking with Miller regarding the incident, Linfield has terminated her employment indefinitely,” a statement from the school posted Monday, Jan. 31, reads.
The statement adds that the comments “made by Ms. Miller do not reflect the beliefs of Linfield, are inconsistent with Linfield’s mission statement, and fail to meet the behavior Linfield expects employees to model for its students.”
It was not clear what position Miller held at Linfield.
In a Saturday, Jan. 29, Facebook entry, Linfield posted photos from its Chinese New Year celebration. A note added that the school was investigating the video and “is enriched by the addition of students from around the world, and we seek to model the heart and love of Christ.”
In Coronado, an employee has been placed on administrative leave “pending an independent, full and fair investigation,” according to a Monday statement from City Manager Tina Friend.
“We take matters such as this extremely seriously and the city has zero tolerance for all forms of discrimination,” Friend stated.
Coronado spokesperson Janine Zuniga said Tuesday that the city would not comment beyond the statement.
The video does not show events leading to the filming.
Brandon Mosely, an educator and member of the social justice group Temecula Unity, said he found the video “deplorable and saddening.”
“We can’t allow this form of hate to continue,” Mosely said. “We have to stand together and keep Dr. King’s words in mind, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ This incident proves why we needed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, and why we need to support ethnic studies and diversity, equity and inclusion training to address biases.”
At the end of the video, the couple get in a car and, seconds later, are seen making obscene gestures through the window at those filming.
“We’re not even Chinese, by the way,” a male voice behind the camera is heard saying.
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