EAST HAVEN, Conn. – A Connecticut school employee has resigned after a video shared on social media Friday night showed her shouting racial slurs and spitting at two black people in a grocery store, The Register Citizen reports.
The superintendent of Hamden Public Schools idenfied the woman in the video as former central office clerk Corinne Terrone. A statement from the school district said Terrone had resigned from her position after the video surfaced.
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The video begins with Terrone, who is white, shouting at two black people, a man and a woman, in an East Haven supermarket. It is unclear how the confrontation began.
Terrone is heard using the n-word, which prompts the man to approach her. She is heard egging him on, telling him, "Put your hands on me." Several people get in between the man and Terrone as she pulls out her phone to start recording. The man is then seen smacking the phone out of her hand.
"You're a n****r in East Haven," Terrone says before spitting at the couple's feet and shouting the n-word again. Terrone shouts several more obscenities before spitting at the couple once more.
Terrone's two kids were with her during the whole encounter.
Watch the video below. [WARNING: Language]
Hamden Public Schools released the following statement after the video spread on social media:
We have become aware of video footage that appears to show an employee in our district engaged in abhorrent conduct. Specifically, the video appears to show the employee repeatedly calling an African-American man the N-word in a supermarket in East Haven.
The video also appears to show the Hamden employee spitting at the aforementioned African-American male as he was walking away from the employee. It also appears that the employee’s children witnessed her conduct. Because her children were present, school administrators filed a DCF report.
While it appears as though this happened after work hours on Friday evening, the Human Resource Director contacted the employee and arranged an investigatory meeting with her. Shortly after final arrangements were made for the investigatory meeting, the employee rendered her resignation effective immediately.
The language the employee used in the video is in conflict with the values of the Hamden Public School System. Someone who will use that sort of language in any setting, whether public or private, is not someone we want anywhere near our children. The employee is separated from service, and we hope that her children will receive the support they need after witnessing such a traumatic event.
The East Haven Police Department said no complaints were filed over the incident, but they asked anyone involved to contact them. According to Lieutenant Joseph Murgo, Terrone could face several charges ranging from a minimum charge of breaching the peace, or an assault charge for spitting.