Racial adviser faces pushback over tweets
Lori Watson, a training consultant under contract with the county education office and two school districts, was admonished for partisan and profane traffic disseminated on her Twitter feed.
An African-American woman who is being paid by Marin educators to conduct racial equity training for students, teachers and parents has been called out for partisan posts she made on Twitter.
“I reached out and talked to her about those tweets,” said Mary Jane Burke, Marin County superintendent of schools, who received a complaint from a parent. “I’m not going to defend the indefensible. The tweets in my view were not appropriate coming from a person who has worked their whole life around equity and equitable opportunities and building relationships.”
Burke, however, said she supports having Lori Watson continue to conduct workshops for the Marin County Office of Education. The office is paying Watson, an independent contractor, $12,000 to conduct four workshops this year.
“She made a mistake,” Burke said. “She took the tweets down, and it won’t happen again.”
Tara Taupier, Tamalpais Union High School District superintendent, said her school district is paying Watson $12,000 to conduct workshops and trainings with students, teachers and parents this year and is also considering purchasing curricula developed by Watson.
“Dr. Watson leads professional development for staff on racial justice and racial consciousness,” Taupier said. “She also does some workshops for our student group Students Organized Against Racism.”
Taupier said the Twitter postings would not affect Tamalpais Union’s professional relationship with Watson.
“Twitter is a platform for free speech,” she said. “We evaluate her on the work she does for us. We can’t create any kind of requirement that violates a civil liberty.”
On Aug. 24, the San Rafael Board of Education also approved a $24,800 contract with Watson for the coming year. Administrators there could not be reached for comment on Friday afternoon.
Among Watson’s tweets was a retweet of a picture of someone wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of Mickey Mouse gesturing obscenely with his two middle fingers below the caption “F— Trump.” Above this Watson wrote, “Love this kid, whomever it is!”
In another post, Watson says she has been blocked from President Trump’s Twitter account.
“I’ll admit, I’ve liked lots of tweets that were tweeted at him, so I guess I’ve been an accessory to the ‘crime’ and guilty by association?” she wrote. “Wow I’m famous!”
In a later tweet, Watson writes, “See, my LOL at this is probably why I got blocked.” The posting she is retweeting calls Trump a racist, a homophobe, a misogynist, a
narcissist, a dictator and several expletives.
Watson also “liked” tweets that used such phrases as “white blizzard of snowflakes.” She also “liked” a disturbing posting that featured a video of a Black family in a car calling the police as they’re being harassed by white people outside their car. She wrote, “I’m sorry, I would have pushed the pedal to the metal.”
Watson liked a posting that read, “Some teachers may be wondering what can I do to end racism on my campus. For many the answer is early retirement.” To which she added, “Ouch.”
And in another posting all her own, Watson wrote, “Black people Amerika hates you!”
Watson declined to comment except to write that “as someone purposed to do the work of racial equity, my focus right now is on healing and unifying.”
Taupier said after receiving screenshots from Watson’s Twitter feed, she didn’t go to her account to see what else might have been there. Taupier wouldn’t say if she found any of the material in the screenshots problematic.
“I don’t think it is appropriate for me to comment on it,” Taupier said. “It’s her private Twitter.”
Taupier said as news spread about the controversy, emails voicing support for Watson’s trainings began to pour into her office. She said by Wednesday she had received 25 messages.
One of the writers, Jenny Silva, wrote, “As a parent who has done some of the trainings with Dr. Lori Watson, I can confirm that none of the political statements in her social media presence were ever communicated in the trainings.”