Coronado couple hit with firing, administrative leave as result of anti-Asian viral video
By Bryan Ke
The Coronado city official who was filmed making anti-Asian statements to an Asian couple in California over the weekend has been put on administrative leave pending an “independent, full and fair investigation.”
In a statement on Monday, Coronado City Manager Tina Friend announced that the employee was immediately put on administrative leave after the video of him and his wife went viral, according to CBS 8 San Diego.
Friend did not name the employee in the statement, but an online Twitter sleuth had previously identified him as Coronado’s Recreation and Golf Services Director Roger Miller, NextShark previously reported.
“Yesterday, the City of Coronado learned of a video circulating on social media featuring the actions of a City employee,” Friend wrote in the statement. “The makers of the video alleged the City employee made a series of racist statements leading up to the filming of the video.”
“Our City’s culture and values are core to who we are and that culture is based on professionalism, service and respect. We take matters such as this extremely seriously and the City has zero-tolerance for all forms of discrimination,” Friend continued.
Speaking to CBS 8 on Sunday, Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey said the city is “taking the matter seriously and working to find out exactly what happened.” Bailey also did not mention Miller’s name in his statement.
Linfield Christian School, where Miller’s wife, Sandie Miller, taught as a teacher, announced on social media on Monday that she was fired following the incident.
Roger and Sandie Miller was caught on camera making anti-Asian statements to an Asian couple, who asked to remain anonymous, in the parking lot of Fashion Island shopping mall in Newport Beach, California, on Saturday. The couple also accused the couple of hurling anti-Asian slurs. The video, which was posted by TikTok user @warmsocks01, soon went viral.
The Millers allegedly blamed Chinese people for spreading COVID-19. They also made xenophobic remarks, such as, “Go back to China,” and said they are glad that America is not a communist country.
“It is very important that the city manager addresses this quickly and swiftly,” Joann Fields of AAPI Initiative told CBS 8. “I hope they make a good decision on how they handle this… I don’t know the city manager there but they need to know the Asian-Pacific Islander community will not stand for this and that we hope they make the right decision.”
“Thank you for your swift action. Words matter, and words have consequences,” Diamond Bar City’s Mayor Pro Tem, Andrew Chou, wrote in a Facebook comment reply to Linfield Christian School’s post. “I hope this serves as a learning opportunity for Mrs. Miller, and she will take some time to do some deep soul searching and reflection.”
Featured Image via @thatdaneshguy
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