Arizona principal out of a job over antisemitic and racist texts

MARCY OSTER/JTA

Elkin said she ‘couldn’t be silenced anymore and continue to accept such casual racism and antisemitic comments in my life.’

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The principal of a charter school in Arizona no longer has his job after a former employee posted on social media a series of antisemitic and racist messages the principal sent to her.

Justin Dye left the Heritage Elementary Charter School in Glendale on Monday, the Arizona Republic reported. It is not known whether Dye resigned or was fired.

The school’s former event coordinator, Danielle Elkin, posted a screenshot of the texts from late January. Elkin is Jewish and the mother of an biracial infant son. The texts also were sent to Elkin’s sister.

“What do you get when you cross a black person and a Jewish person? The loudest/cheapest thief in town. He steals pennies, holds on to them, and then screams about it to everybody. I just made that up on the fly, what do you guys thing? Cleaver?” one of the texts read.

Elkin told the newspaper that she did not go to Dye’s supervisor in January because school executives had stood by the principal for the past two years amid allegations of sexual harassment and shorting teachers on their pay.
She had worked for the school for seven years when she left in February

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Elkin said she “couldn’t be silenced anymore and continue to accept such casual racism and antisemitic comments in my life.” She also posted a screenshot of Dye’s text.