Father calls racist comment at school meeting ‘a deep wound’ | ABC News

now to the outrage growing over racist incident caught on camera a father targeting another dad during a school meeting others in the room coming to his defense and now we're hearing from that father who was attacked to get homes is here with the story good morning to you okay a lot of people who see this video are going to be shocked Straight by what they see others are going to shrug their shoulders and say it's emblematic of problems in this country what we're about to see is a school meeting about racism and before parents could even make their point another parent proved their point by telling an immigrant you don't like it here then why did you leave Mexico a meeting about racism in a Michigan school erupts when Adrian areola who emigrated from Mexico in the 1980s was interrupted as he described his son's experience when it took his bedroom to say good night and he was crying because [Music] parents in shock they turned their ire to the parent who asked the question as Erie Ola tries to handle mic over and let the man speak the meeting was to address racial issues in the school district after a group of black football players was targeted with racial slurs on snapchat one of those football players fathers was the first to come to Erie ollas defense I had a natural reaction which was the stand up and confront but by and large everybody was supportive there was lots of Tears lots of remorse and and I think it was an awakening for those people that were unaware of that racism exists the offending parent eventually takes the mic to make this point try being white walk in a black neighborhood see what happens after the meeting Arreola told us the incident felt like an old wound being reopened Erie Ola kept his composure and eventually answered the man's question which resulted in another outburst [Music] [Applause] yeah and the school district did pick up put out a statement and says in part that this type of bigotry goes against all the values and beliefs of our school system says we will continue to listen to parents and students now the man who spoke up in there and made that comment his son actually put out a post on Facebook distancing himself from his dad and you're seeing it up there in which he actually says his views of hate in no way represent my own that is the man's son that put that out this is an overwhelmingly white district the kid's been complaining about this for quite some time and the complaint now was confirmed they're saying this is the type of stuff we are subjected to often and so it happened on camera maybe we all can take a moment and take it in I don't think any of us were surprised that somebody in the country maybe has that attitude but a lot of people are shocked that he was so cool and comfortable and open environment about doing it but but you're encouraged by the reaction from others in their entire the woman that was in front how she turned around immediately and so that that is encouraging to have that but yet like like you said that some people are like shocked by this others are like what's the problem seeing it been there done that and I'm just glad other people are seeing it that's the attitude of some I'm glad you know what I've been talking about it's just on display you saw it that's what I've been talking about we'll see what happens in that district that this helps them move forward in some way but it's just an ugly incident caught on camera but still we can all learn something more vicious one of the worst thing could probably be having your child distance themselves from you and you that probably hurts more than anything guys - Thank You TV hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 2,773,546

Keywords: racist, comment, school, meeting, mexican, immigrant, Adrian, Iraola, racism, in, system, gma, abc, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-68772132

Id: I4mehbqRBlc

Length: 4min 30sec (270 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 05 2020