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Alison Collins is a community activist[1] and a former educator[2] who is currently serving as a commissioner on the San Francisco Board of Education.[3]

Collins came to national attention for a series of racist tweets directed toward the Asian community (which led to her being stripped of her title as Vice-President of the Board on March 25, 2021[4]), and her role in the attempt of renaming of 44 San Francisco schools.[5]

Early life

According to Collins' biography at the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), she holds a master's degree in education from San Francisco State University.[6] According to biographies at the websites of SFUSD and other sources, Collins' father was one of the first African American professors at UCLA.[6][7]

San Francisco Board of Education

Main article: 2018 San Francisco Board of Education election

Collins was an educator for 20 years[2] and ran the "San Francisco Public School Mom" blog.[1] She is a critic of charter schools.[1]

She was elected to the Board of Education in 2018, among a pool of 19 candidates.[8]

Tenure

Collins has been the focus of recall efforts.[9][10]

Work by Collins and others on the Board to rename schools has been the focus of controversy as well as legal action.[11][12][13]

Collins voted with the 5-2 majority in February 2021 to turn the merit-based admissions policy at Lowell High School into an lottery system.[14] Angel Eduardo of Newsweek opined that the erasure of merit-based systems would lead to the erasure of people of color by reducing them to a quota.[15]

Anti-Asian controversy

In December 2016, Collins made several tweets alleging anti-Blackness in the Asian American population at her daughters' school and the lack of critical race theory dialogue from the San Francisco Unified School District's Asian student and teacher population. She said that the Asian community needs to speak out more against racism against Black and Latino people, suggesting they would also be targeted by incoming president Donald Trump‘s policies.

  • “I grew up in mostly Asian Am schools and know this experience all to well. Many Asian Am. believe they benefit from the ‘model minority.’”
  • “Talk to many [Lowell High School] parents and you will hear praise of Tiger Moms and disparagement of Black/Brown ‘culture,'” Collins tweeted in December 2016.
  • “I even see it in my FB timeline with former HS peers. Their TLs are full of White Asian ppl. No recognition Black Lives Matter exists.
  • “2 [weeks] ago, my mixed-race/Black daughter heard boys teasing a Latino about ‘Trump, Mexicans and the KKK.’ The boys were Asian-American,” Collins added. “She spoke up when none of the other staff did. The after school counselor was Asian."
  • “Where are the vocal Asians speaking up against Trump? Don’t Asian Americans know they’re on his list as well?”
  • “Do they think they won’t be deported? profiled? beaten? Being a house n****r is still being a n****r. You’re still considered 'the help.'”[16]

Members of the recall effort against Collins resurfaced the tweets in March 2021 following a surge in violent crimes against Asians.[17]

A near unanimous number of prominent officials elected to high public office in San Francisco have expressed outrage and called for her resignation over the tweets,[18] calling them racist and hateful.[17] Mayor of San Francisco London Breed (a lifelong San Francisco resident, African-American woman, and graduate of SFUSD schools), all eleven current and more former members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (four of whom formerly served on the San Francisco Board of Education as well, including Shamann Walton, Matt Haney, Eric Mar, and Sandra Lee Fewer), California State Assembly members David Chiu and Phil Ting, California State Senator Scott Wiener, and several San Francisco political groups[19] have called for her resignation.[20][21][22]

Collins later only partially apologized (refusing to acknowledge, to either fellow commissioners or the public at large, the hurt to the Asian-American community her tweets caused),[23] while maintaining to claim that the tweets were taken out of context and refusing to delete the tweets[24] from her account.[25][16] After Commissioners Lam and Moliga introduced a resolution of "No Confidence and Vote to Remove Commissioner Collins from her position as Vice-President",[26][27] the board approved a vote of no-confidence 5 to 2 (only Commissioners Gabriela Lopez and Alison Collins voted no) on March 25, 2021, effectively relieving Collins of her titles and roles in any committees.[28][29]

References

  1. ^ a b c Examiner Staff (2018-10-07). "Endorsements: Supervisor races, BART board, Board of Education for November 2018". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2021-03-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b Noah, More by (2018-10-03). "Youths Step Up to Question School Board Candidates". San Francisco Public Press. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  3. ^ Tucker, Jill (19 February 2021). "While S.F. school officials tout sunny reopening picture, critics ponder board recall". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  4. ^ Mojadad, Ida (25 March 2021). "School board strips Alison Collins of titles, committees in vote of no confidence". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  5. ^ Tucker, Jill (20 March 2021). "San Francisco school board member criticized for racist tweets in 2016 aimed at Asian Americans". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Board Vice President Alison M. Collins | SFUSD". www.sfusd.edu. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Bio". Alison Collins. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  8. ^ Tucker, Jill (2018-11-07). "SF school board election: Collins, Lopez and Moliga win seats". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  9. ^ Mojadad, Ida (22 February 2021). "Parents launch recall effort against school board members". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  10. ^ Tucker, Jill (19 February 2021). "While S.F. school officials tout sunny reopening picture, critics ponder board recall". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  11. ^ Scott, Paul (19 February 2021). "School Board should heed its own lessons when it comes to renaming schools". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  12. ^ Hwang, Kellie; Tucker, Jill (22 February 2021). "S.F. school board pauses renaming process for 44 schools after coming under fire". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  13. ^ Kesslen, Ben (23 Feb 2021). "San Francisco school renaming effort stalls after colliding with another battle: School reopening". NBC News. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  14. ^ Tucker, Jill (2021-02-11). "S.F. school board strips Lowell High of its merit-based admissions system". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  15. ^ Eduardo, Angel (10 March 2021). "Why calling merit racist erases people of color | Opinion". Newsweek. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  16. ^ a b Brooks, Eric; Anderson, Sarah (19 March 2021). "San Francisco school board member's past tweets targeting Asian Americans surface". KCBS (AM). Retrieved 20 March 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ a b Tucker, Jill (2021-03-20). "San Francisco school board member criticized for racist tweets in 2016 aimed at Asian Americans". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
  18. ^ Eskenazi, Joe (23 March 2021). "The strange and terrible saga of Alison Collins and her ill-fated Tweets". Mission Local (missionlocal.org). Retrieved 28 March 2021. The solidarity among San Francisco's political class in calling for school board vice president Alison Collins to resign is stunning in its damn-near unanimity. Absent some feel-good bond measures, it's hard to recall a municipal shield wall quite this tight. Everyone can easily be for funding parks and playgrounds and kiddies and sea walls. Here, everyone is against Collins. That's different.
  19. ^ "Alison Collins Must Resign!". Edwin M. Lee Asian Pacific Democratic Club. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  20. ^ Tucker, Jill (21 March 2021). "Mayor Breed calls for S.F. school board member to resign over racist tweets directed at Asian Americans". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 28 March 2021. "We are outraged and sickened by the racist, anti-Asian statements tweeted by school board Vice President Alison Collins that recently came to light," 22 current and former elected officials said in a statement Saturday. "No matter the time, no matter the place, and no matter how long ago the tweets were written, there is no place for an elected leader in San Francisco who is creating and or/created hate statements and speeches." Officials, who continued to add their names throughout Saturday, thanked Collins for her service and asked her to resign from her post. Mayor London Breed and school board members Jenny Lam and Faauuga Moliga and the head of the city's teachers union also called for her to step down.
  21. ^ Ting, Eric (2021-03-19). "SF school board member used slur in tweets about Asian Americans". SFGATE. Retrieved 2021-03-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ Dowd, Katie; Ting, Eric (21 March 2021). "Dozens of officials, including mayor, ask SF school board VP Alison Collins to step down". SFGate. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  23. ^ Symon, Evan (24 March 2021). "SF School Board To Vote On Removing VP Alison Collins of All Titles, Responsibilities". California Globe. Retrieved 28 March 2021. During the Board meeting on Tuesday, Collins began with a formal apology over the incident, but left out mentioning Asian Americans specifically.
  24. ^ CBS SF (25 March 2021). "San Francisco Board of Education Votes to Remove Allison Collins As VP Over Racist Tweets". KPIX 5 CBS SF BayArea. San Francisco: CBS. Retrieved 28 March 2021. As of Saturday evening, Collins had not deleted the posts.
  25. ^ Eskenazi, Joe (23 March 2021). "The strange and terrible saga of Alison Collins and her ill-fated Tweets". Mission Local (missionlocal.org). Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  26. ^ Lam, Jenny; Moliga, Faauuga. "Resolution No. 213-25A1 Assertion of No-Confidence" (PDF). boarddocs.com. SFUSD Board. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  27. ^ Lam, Jenny; Moliga, Faauuga. "Resolution of No Confidence". boarddocs.com. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  28. ^ SFUSD (25 March 2021). "SF Board of Education Passes No Confidence Resolution" (Press Release). SFUSD. San Francisco. Retrieved 28 March 2021. The San Francisco Board of Education passed the resolution "Assertion of No-Confidence," removing Commissioner Alison M. Collins from her leadership position as Vice President and from all committees of the San Francisco Board of Education for the duration of her term and effective immediately. The resolution was co-authored by Commissioners Jenny Lam and Faauuga Moliga, and was passed by the SF Board of Education in a vote of 5 to 2 at a Special Meeting on March 25, 2021.
  29. ^ Tucker, Jill (2021-03-26). "S.F. school board votes no confidence in commissioner over racist 2016 tweets". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
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