Milpitas High School Employee Filmed Wearing Blackface

MILPITAS, CA — A staff member at Milpitas High School has been put on administrative leave after he came to school dressed in blackface last week as part of a Halloween costume, the Milpitas Unified School District said Sunday.

The incident was captured in a video posted on Twitter by a MHS student on Nov. 1. According to the student's tweet, the staff member — a white teacher — was dressed as Common, an African-American hip hop artist and activist.

"The action(s) were inappropriate, unprofessional and insensitive," said Chris Norwood, president of Milpitas Unified School District school board, in a statement released by MUSD Sunday afternoon.

"As an African American man, the history of Blackface reminds me of the cruelty, hatred and fear my parents and people of African Ancestry have dealt with in the past and still experience today around the world," Norwood said.

In a separate statement, MUSD superintendent Cheryl Jordan and school principal Francis Rojas said that action may be taken against the staff member pending an investigation, and condemned the act as "disparaging to our students, parents, colleagues and the Milpitas community we serve."