California judge trashes lawsuit from board member who was fired over anti-Asian tweets

A federal judge has junked the lawsuit that former San Francisco school board vice president Alison Collins filed in March against the school district and five of her colleagues who voted to strip her of her board position.

The case: Collins alleged that the school district and her colleagues violated her right to free speech when they voted to remove her from board committees and her vice presidency position over tweets she posted in 2016, reported the SF Chronicle.

Collins sought $72 million in general damages from the district, the school board’s current vice president Faauuga Moliga, and board members Jenny Lam, Mark Sanchez and Kevine Boggess. Collins also sought $3 million from each board member in punitive damages.
Citing its lack of merit, Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. ruled on Monday that there was no need to argue Collins’ $87 million lawsuit in court.
The judge also denied Collins’ request for an injunction in the suit to allow her to return to her committee position and take back her vice president position.
The decision came just days before the case’s first scheduled court hearing.

Fired over tweets: In a series of tweets Collins wrote on Dec. 4, 2016, she claimed that many Asian Americans use “white supremacist thinking to assimilate” to “get ahead,” while also believing that “they benefit from the ‘model minority’ BS,’” NextShark previously reported.

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The controversial tweets resurfaced in March, attracting attention after the Recall SF School Board Twitter account shared them.
Collins’ tweets, which many found to be racist against Asians, attracted widespread backlash.
Elected officials, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed and most members of the Board of Supervisors, urged Collins to resign.
On March 25, members of the San Francisco Board of Education approved a “no confidence” vote to remove Collins from her vice president position and from all board committees, according to KPIX.

Featured Image via Alison Collins

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