Virginia’s largest school district says it will bring in a third party to launch a probe into an anonymous email sent to one of its high school cheer coaches.
The email had racist overtones and highlighted a previous coach’s distinctly Black features.
Oakton High School cheerleading coach Jillian Domenech received the correspondence in March, local station WTOP reported last week.
The email came from an anonymous sender and started with a very friendly greeting, saying, “Hello Coach Jillian … welcome to Oakton.” It continued by acknowledging she is an alumna of the school before diving swiftly into what the person calls a “sensitive topic.”
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The nameless sender claimed to speak for a large group of parents and students who say they are not “comfortable with another colored individual coaching cheerleading.”
Then the writer placed emphasis on the school’s history of cheer coaches and how, up until recently, most of them had been white. Last school semester, from August 2022 to November 2022, the school hired a Black person, Faith Dabrio, to coach the squad, but she eventually left for reasons unrelated to issues raised in the email.
“I left because I wasn’t getting support from administration,” Dabrio said in an interview with local station WJLA on Wednesday, May 17. After reading the email sent to her replacement Domenech, she said she was left “in complete shock.”
The coach before Dabrio was also Black.
According to the message, current and past Oakton cheerleaders had issues with Dabrio’s complexion, despite others believing she was a nice person.
“Many of the girls were shocked to see another coach last season with such dark and strong features,” the message said.
Dabrio said she cried after reading the…
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