Fresno vice principal on leave after comments about ‘ghetto girls’ and ‘Section 8 people’
A Fresno Unified administrator at Sunnyside High School was placed on paid leave this week while the district investigates a video in which he uses the phrases “ghetto girls” and “Section 8 people.”
Fred Veenendaal, the staffer seen in the video circulating on social media platforms like TikTok, is a vice principal at the high school, district leaders confirmed.
“While we are investigating,” district spokesperson Nikki Henry said in an email to The Bee’s Education Lab, “the staff member in the video is not working with students.”
It also was unclear exactly when and where the incident occurred. District officials confirmed Veenendaal was placed on leave Monday in connection with the video.
He has been a vice principal at Sunnyside since 2015 and receives an annual salary of $139,993, according to records provided by the district.
Before that, he was a vice principal at Bullard from 2009 to 2015 and made $97,053. He was first hired by the district in 2008 at Wawona K-8 School as a guidance learning advisor.
Henry said Veenendaal wasn’t available for comment Tuesday.
@firemrvenindall Last weekend this video of my VP at sunnyside high school (go to FireMrVenindall on tik tok) of him harassing 3 black women in North Side of Fresno California and called these poor women "section 8 people" "ghetto girls" for simply walking around the neighborhood or area that they were both in. As a student at SHS I find this very disturbing and disappointing. He has not been accountable for his actions and words by our school/school district, even though the video has been shared throughout the school and to teachers. He must be fire. #firemrvenindall #fyp #racism #poc #genz #fresno #fresno559 ♬ Peaches - Jack Black
What the video shows
The 28-second video obtained by the Ed Lab captures an exchange between Veenendaal and young women who can be heard speaking in the video but aren’t seen in the frame.
A caption on the video posted to TikTok described the incident as “racism, hate crime, harassment, etc.”
During the video, a woman behind the camera repeatedly says, “We’re minors.”
Henry could not confirm whether the young women heard in the video are FUSD students, saying, “that’s part of our investigation.”
At the beginning of the video, someone behind the camera can be heard saying, “We didn’t even do nothing, so we recording you right now. You know that’s harassment, right?”
Veenendaal replies, “No it’s not.” He then can be seen raising his phone and appears to make a call to someone who he addresses as “officer.” He goes on to say:
“Officer, you got three girls here. Three Section 8 people here. Ghetto girls.”
“Section 8” is the former name of the federal government’s rental assistance voucher program for low-income people.
The tense back-and-forth between the vice principal and the young woman continues while he also holds up his phone as though he’s recording them.
The district’s Sunnyside-area trustee Valerie Davis referred the Ed Lab to Henry in response to the Ed Lab’s request for comment, stating it was a personnel matter. Board president Veva Islas also declined to comment for the same reason.
The district is mere weeks away from the one-year anniversary of when a photo of a student, who appeared to be wearing a makeshift Ku Klux Klan hood, circulated on social media and sparked outcry across the district.
Hundreds of students walked out of class in protest, and some of the district’s Black student unions made renewed calls to hold the district accountable for racism.
Ed Lab reporter Lasherica Thornton contributed reporting.
