Editor’s Note: This story came to the paper from a Sun employee. Rene Rodriguez, Sr., is an account executive with the Sun. The editors discussed the issue and agreed that we would have reported on it no matter who brought it to us. Also, please note that there is very strong profanity throughout several of the comments.
A Santa Maria couple is upset by comments attributed to a Righetti High School teacher, posted about their son on the social networking site Facebook.
On July 1, Sun employee Rene Rodriguez showed reporters a screen shot his son took of a fellow student’s Facebook page. The screen shot showed a picture of Chad Dias, an RHS history teacher and girls’ basketball coach, and a female student at the school’s 2011 graduation ceremony. Under the picture, in the comments section, Rodriguez’s son Rene, Jr., made a post calling Dias a bitch.
Approximately two weeks after the original post, the following post appeared, attributed to Dias: “Rene did you graduate? RHS is good a producing pieces of shit. I am sure I will see you working some dead end job or u will be as usual, ass up, face down in u tube video like the bitch you are.”
The post continued, “Good luck in life o wait, not really, just don’t reproduce and fuck up the gene pool with Rene Rodriguez III. HAHA you calling me a bitch a your named after a fucking girl. Irony!”
A second post made shortly after the first referenced a meeting Rodriguez, Sr., said he attended with Dias and Assistant Principal David Hutton. According Rodriguez, Sr., the meeting was held to discuss a discipline issue between his son and Dias, which included the boy accusing Dias of cussing and yelling at his students, which the teacher denied.
At first, Rodriguez, Sr., said he sided with Dias and told his son “he’s your teacher and you need to respect him.”
But the posts on Facebook, he said, changed his mind.
In the second post, Dias allegedly said, “O yeah. Forgot to through this one in. Nice job trying to rat me out about shit in class. I knew you would do that shit. RAT! Didn’t work did it though. Was funny watching you get told off by Hutton and your dad. Thought you were going to cry.
“Once a RAT always a RAT! Next time just take you shit like a man, o wait your name is Rene thats just not possible. Peace little bitch!”
To this, Rodriguez, Jr. replied, “hahahahahahahaha grown ass man huh? like i said ur a bitch!!”
Shortly after the Facebook incident, Rodriguez, Sr., complained to the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District. He admitted that his son “has a mouth on him,” but didn’t think that fact warranted the comments from Dias’ Facebook account.
“As a parent, I’m just furious,” he said. “We trust the school district and teachers to teach our students right and wrong. [Dias] let my 17-year-old son get under his skin, and it’s just wrong. To me, I think it’s a case of bullying, a teacher abusing his power against a kid.”
The posts in question have since been removed.
Rodriguez said he met with Sergio Flores, the district’s assistant superintendent of human resources, on July 5. He said Flores assured him the district would investigate the matter.
“I think the district is doing something about it. [Flores] said to me, ‘Come in whenever you can and I’ll take you with no appointment,’” he recalled. “I just don’t want this to get brushed under the carpet. I want Dias to be held accountable for his actions just like my son has.”
As of press time, Flores and Superintendent Doug Kimberly failed to return repeated calls for comment. The Sun also delivered a packet containing the screen shots to the district office with a request for comment the week of July 4.
When asked about the incident by the Sun, Dias said, “I have no knowledge of what you’re talking about.”
A reporter then informed Dias the Sun possessed screen shots of the Facebook conversation, to which he replied, “I have no comment,” and then, “I’m busy,” before hanging up.
Rodriguez, Sr., said he hopes the matter will be resolved soon.
—Amy Asman
This article appears in Jul 14-21, 2011.