The San Francisco school board member who allegedly smeared Asian-American in a series of tweets has lawyered up and is seeking millions in money damages from her colleagues for, among things, “spiritual injury to her soul.”
Alison Colins was vice president of the school board until she was stripped of her committee assignments as part of a no-confidence vote once the 2016 tweets (posted when she was a private citizen) surfaced. She is still a board member, however, despite widespread calls by officials from the mayor on down for her to resign.
In a 48-page federal lawsuit containing seven causes of action, including free speech violations, and that requests a jury trial, Colins names as defendants the San Francisco Unified School District, the city and county of San Francisco, five school board commissioners individually, and 50 others identified generically as John Does.
The defendants “caused MS. COLLINS to suffer, in perpetuity, for the rest of her life the following harms, injuries loses and damages: Pain, inconvenience, severe mental distress, severe emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, humiliation, harm to self-image, injury to career, spiritual injury to her soul, fear, discomfort, misery, anxiety, and suffering,” the legal complaint asserts.
Colins appears to be seeking $12 million in money damages from each defendant and an additional $3 million from the school board members in punitive damages. She is also requesting a court order to reinstate her as board VP and to her committee assignments.
Was randomly looking over court documents and it appears that @SFUnified Board of Education Commissioner @AliMCollins just sued the school district, the city of San Francisco and school board commissioners Jenny Lam, Faauuga Moliga, Matt Alexander, Kevin Boggess and Mark Sanchez pic.twitter.com/ILsk9dGbXV
— Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler (@ggreschler) March 31, 2021
Last month in the midst of the controversy, Colins claimed that the tweets were taken out of context. She has also insisted she is the target of a smear campaign because of her equity advocacy.
A number of tweets and social media posts I made in 2016 have recently been highlighted. They have been taken out of context, both of that specific moment and the nuance of the conversation that took place. https://t.co/oHDSZojGFc pic.twitter.com/ZoTdCBJv6f
— Alison Collins 高勵思 (@AliMCollins) March 20, 2021
Watch a local news report about the newly filed lawsuit from KRON-TV in San Francisco:
“So much of who I am and how I am in this world has gotten lost due to this targeted smear campaign to label me as a racist to slow the stop of equity that I have engaged in over the years,” Colins said at a rally on Wednesday.
“I will unapologetically pursue equity and empowerment of Black, Latin, Asian, Arab, and other communities regardless of the opportunistic and meritless attacks directed towards me,” she added.
Many social media users don’t seem to be giving the lawsuit high marks, however. Here is a sampling of reactions:
I’d like to just stand back for a second and appreciate that one of SF’s most notorious woke scolds is trying to set a precedent protecting city officials who use racial slurs in public
— Mason 🏃♂️✂️𐃏 (@webdevMason) April 1, 2021
I’m sure all this money will go to the poor kids she is so worried about.
— Mrs. Batu (@mrsunbatu) March 31, 2021
As much as I despise this woman, I also despise that school board and the voters who elected them. Tough to pick a side. She’s gonna walk with a couple million in go-away settlement – which is her entire legal strategy.
— Jack, a professional American™😎 (@_bottlejack) March 31, 2021
She needs to get hit with a class-action lawsuit by students (parents) claiming violation of their civil rights. $10k per student works out to rather a lot.
— argyriou (@argyriou15) April 1, 2021
Keep in mind that this is the same Alison Collins who thought it was wonderful when Bari Weiss was straight-up fired from her job, because Bari wrote an article Alison didn’t like. “It’s not cancel-culture, it’s called ACCOUNTABILITY.” pic.twitter.com/1gP94XZ2LZ
— Mason 🏃♂️✂️𐃏 (@webdevMason) March 31, 2021
So any other SFUSD parents want to join me in filing a $1 billion lawsuit against Alison Collins?
— Chris Labarthe (@chris_labarthe) April 1, 2021
The sad thing is, knowing SF she will probably win and then become the next mayor. What a disgustingly selfish narcissist.
— Chiara Wine (@ChiaraKW) April 1, 2021
Cancel culture isn’t so fair and just, is it?
— Theodore Morganstern, Esquire (@TSingerSF) April 1, 2021
They don’t have any schools to run at the moment, so I guess they’ve got a lot of spare time.
— Ben Podgursky | human supremacist (@bpodgursky) March 31, 2021
Whose terrible idea was it to hire the Game of Thrones writers to make this season of SFUSD?
— Laura Wolfram (@arualamarflow) April 1, 2021
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