Pasadena principal under fire for remarks after custodian is detained

A schoolhouse surrounded by a lawn, landscaping and leafy trees

Aug. 19, 2022 Updated 9:08 AM PT

When Principal Rudy Ramirez learned that his Pasadena elementary school’s head custodian had been detained Sunday by police investigating reports of a possible burglar, he raced to campus feeling upset and scared for his employee’s life, he said.

At the scene — and, unbeknownst to him, in the view of a security officer’s body camera — he focused his ire on neighbors and parents in the predominantly white, affluent community, using expletives to describe them and leveling accusations of racism, according to video footage and a written report released by the Pasadena Police Department and city manager’s office as part of their review of the incident.

On Thursday, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo issued a strong rebuke of the principal, criticizing him for making “derogatory racial remarks” about parents and community members.

In a letter addressed to Pasadena residents and San Rafael Elementary School parents, Gordo called Ramirez’s comments “offensive” and said they were “not factual and were inflammatory.”

“Race-based denigrating statements are never appropriate,” Gordo wrote in the letter published Thursday evening. “Biased statements directed or intended to denigrate people based on skin color were wrong in times long past, wrong on Sunday, and will always be wrong.”

A responding officer from California Metro Patrol, a private security company contracted by the district, wrote in a report released as part of the city review that Ramirez, who arrived at the school visibly upset after police left, said of his employee, “I bet if he was white he wouldn’t have been treated like that.”

Ramirez also used an expletive to criticize the school’s “nosy … white neighbors,” according to the report, and said that when “white kids” trespassed onto and vandalized school property, “no one calls.” Sunday’s incident started with a 911 call reporting a suspected intruder on the campus.

The mayor’s criticism of Ramirez’s remarks followed an apology from the principal.

In his own letter addressed to the San Rafael school community on Wednesday night, Ramirez expressed regret for some of the language he used about parents and neighbors. It was a moment of heightened emotions, he wrote.

“I made some offensive and inappropriate comments in the presence of a Metro Patrol Officer who had his body camera on without my knowledge,” Ramirez wrote in his letter. “I am deeply ashamed of the language that I used and some of the things that I said.”

Hilda Ramirez Horvath, spokesperson for the Pasadena Unified School District, which includes San Rafael Elementary, shared the letter with The Times.

The district does not condone the principal’s comments and does not comment on personnel matters, Ramirez Horvath said in a statement.

Gordo wrote that he is having a “difficult time accepting [Ramirez’s] apology.”

After school officials and some parents had expressed outrage that the custodian was detained while doing his job, Pasadena Unified Supt. Brian McDonald asked Pasadena police and the city manager to conduct an investigation into how the event unfolded and whether law enforcement responded appropriately.

A review of body-camera video by both agencies found that police followed protocol when they handcuffed and detained the custodian following reports of a possible burglar, officials said. They also said the custodian was cooperative.

The custodian was detained for about 6½ minutes as officers called and confirmed his identity with Ramirez, who informed officers that the employee was working overtime to prepare for the new school year. Police then released the custodian.

The city released body-camera footage on Tuesday from the responding police officers as well as from officers with California Metro Patrol who were at the scene. A recording of the 911 call from a neighbor and a written report by the security company were also made public.

According to materials from the review, Ramirez alleged that race was a contributing factor in the incident.

The school district declined to identify the custodian, but a spokesperson confirmed he is Latino and in his mid-40s, and he has been a district employee for 14 years.

People in a car carry signs that say Black and Brown Unity and Stronger Together in front of Pasadena City Hall

San Rafael Elementary is in a predominantly white and affluent area, according to Census Reporter, an independent organization that collects and simplifies data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In audio from footage recorded by a security officer’s body camera, Ramirez can be heard hurling expletive-laden comments about the school’s neighbors. In one instance, he denigrates a white neighbor and parent at his school, using sexist slurs. In another, he used a derogatory term about Mexican people.

Ramirez also described tensions boiling over with local residents. He recalled how a neighbor put her hands on him, imitating her pounding his chest with her fingers while lodging complaints about a parent at the school.

“I might be the only Mexican in your life that doesn’t work for you, so watch how you talk to me,” Ramirez recounted telling the woman.

In his letter to his school community, Ramirez said he had received a call Sunday morning from officers looking to confirm the identity of his head custodian. He said that while he was driving to the school, the custodian called and described officers having “these big assault rifles and rubber bullet guns.” His employee had been deeply rattled, he wrote.

The city said that the guns police were carrying were nonlethal and use a projectile made of foam.

Ramirez described in his letter how he was scared for his employee, “confused and hurt” — emotions, he said, that stemmed from his own experiences with gun violence and police harassment while growing up in Paramount.

He also was stirred by what he saw as an injustice against the school’s custodian and the school community, he said.

Ramirez apologized for allowing “my emotions and fear to overpower me.”

“It is my responsibility to make amends and I fully intend to do so,” Ramirez wrote.

Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.