Video shows San Rafael Elementary Principal fuming about neighbors after cops were called on custodian
The principal of San Rafael Elementary in Pasadena was caught on a security guard's body-worn camera fuming over a call to 911 that ended with the school's custodian in handcuffs, temporarily detained.
The incident unfolded Sunday after a caller to 911 told Pasadena Police that they saw a person scaling the school's fence.
While no one has been able to verify if he hopped a fence or not, the school's custodian of 14 years was fully uniformed and, according to one teacher, had his keys on him. Police handcuffed him while they made sure no one else was in the school.
The custodian was there at the request of the school's principal, who wanted the campus cleaned before the start of the school week.
After police left the scene, bodycam footage from a private security guard employed by the school shows Principal Rudy Ramirez not mincing words about his frustration that someone called 911 on the custodian.
"This one here too, another neighbor. That one too. She lives on the f------ corner....f------ b----," Ramirez can be seen saying.
Ramirez continued spouting off, speculating about who might have called police and recalling previous run-ins he'd had with neighbors.
"This woman put her hands on me. This one right here, she caught me on the corner and she's like, 'One of your parents almost killed me,'" he said.
One of the main problems that residents in the area have is pickup time, when parents line up around 2 p.m., creating a backup on neighborhood streets. San Rafael parent Ericka Avilar said that she's felt the pressure from those that live nearby.
"There's always been some animosity with the neighbors and being called on parents," she told CBSLA.
Ramirez, though, believes the issues residents have with the school go much deeper.
"Since that point on, it's been a f------ problem, but like I told her, I said, 'I might be the only Mexican in your life that doesn't work for you, watch how you talk to me. You don't walk to me that way,'" the principal can be seen saying.
Both police and officials with the city conducted an internal review of the original incident on Sunday, in which police body-cam footage was also released, and concluded that officers acted appropriately and that the custodian was cooperative.
CBSLA reached out to officials with the Pasadena Unified School District about the principal's candid remarks in the body-worn footage, and were told that they were preparing a statement.
