Oakland School Receives Bomb Threat After Conservative Social Media Troll Claims the School Is ‘Racist Against Whites’ for Hosting Play Date for Black and Brown Families
Police in Oakland, California, had to evacuate one of the city’s schools after it received a bomb threat, days after the school was the site of a “play date” for its Black, brown, and Asian-American students.
Family members of the students and administrators say they received backlash for having the event, with members in the predominately white and affluent community crying reverse racism. Organizers and participants insisted that nothing was further from the truth and that the event was a diversity and inclusion opportunity set up to affirm students of color.
Tamila Jackson, a parent of a Black student at the school and a member of the equity and inclusion group, received emails based on the event.
“They decided to start emailing us threats, asked if we wanted a race war, it was something mentioned of being locked in chains and released back in the jungle where we belong,” she said in an interview with KTVU.
A conservative social media account, Libs of TikTok, made a post about the event on Monday, Aug. 28, and called the school “racist against white people.”
The Oakland Unified School District received the threats on that same day and contacted the local authorities. When the school received it the next day, Tuesday, Aug. 29, they also immediately contacted authorities.
Oakland Police Capt. Lisa Ausmus says her department responded to a bomb threat at Chabot Elementary around 7:30 a.m. She said the school received a bomb threat with thinly veiled racist language. As a result, the school was evacuated.
Thirty students and staff members already on campus were moved to a baseball field next to the school. Those arriving were prohibited from going into the building as OPD officers, deputies from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and their K-9 unit searched the premises.
“I will say that the email had some racial undertones in it. And we’re currently investigating that right now. We have asked the FBI, and they’re going to come in and assist us with this investigation,” Ausmus said.
The outlet confirmed that the Chabot Principal Jessica Cannon and a staffer were named in the threats.
Oakland’s District 1 school board Director, Sam Davis, confirmed the bomb threat was because of the event hosted the weekend before. A flyer was posted on social media, and people who were upset that the event seemingly excluded whites expressed themselves on social media and allegedly in the emailed threats.
“They’re trying to be more welcoming to families of color at the school,” Davis explained, according to the Oakland Side about the play date.
“They had a families-of-color playdate at the school recently, a few days ago. Maybe just one parent posted something online about being upset about that, and it led to all of this drama that I’m sure is 99.9 percent of people who don’t live in Oakland or have nothing to do with the school sending angry email messages.”
Reports show certain parts of Oakland are divided by racial lines, even though the city is one of the most diverse in the United States.
The Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland has a Hispanic population of 8 percent and a Black population of only 3.4 percent. Its Asian population is 12 percent, the largest minority community within the area.
While many may look at California as one of the more racially diverse states in the nation, Oakland happens to be the country’s 14th-most segregated major city, according to The Oakland Side.
At a press conference on the bomb threat, Ausmus said other private citizens received bomb threats but would not say if those emails were connected to the school.