A California school district employee who appeared to deliberately cough on a 1-year-old boy in a store last month no longer has her job, according to the school district that employed her.
“As many know, there have been allegations that a District employee was involved in a videotaped incident in which the person appeared to have intentionally coughed on a baby at a local Yogurtland,” the Oak Grove School District said in a statement. “We want to inform our community that the District employee who was alleged to have engaged in this conduct is no longer an employee of our District.”
“The Oak Grove School District’s highest priority is the safety of our students and the well-being of all of the children in the community we serve. We do not tolerate conduct from any employee that compromises any child’s safety.”
The district did not identify the employee by name.
Last month, the San Jose Police Department said it was searching for an assault suspect described as a white female in her 60s who allegedly coughed on a baby in a San Jose store on June 12 after a dispute with the child’s mother.
“The preliminary investigation revealed the suspect was upset the female was not maintaining proper social distancing, so the suspect removed her face mask, got close to the baby’s face, and coughed 2-3 times,” a press release from the San Jose Police Department stated at the time.
The child’s mother, Mireya Mora, who is Latina, told local news outlets she believed the incident was motivated by race.
“She said, ‘So you don’t understand, and do you even understand what I’m saying,’ like I’m not even speaking English,” Mora told NBC Bay Area at the time.
The San Jose Police Department told CNN late last month that the woman accused of coughing on the baby would not be named since there was no warrant for her arrest.
“We can’t release the names of suspects until there is a warrant for their arrest, they were booked into jail, or they were issued a criminal citation,” San Jose police Sgt. Enrique Garcia said at the time. “We are not sharing additional information at this time. The investigation is ongoing and we are following up on tips.”
HuffPost has reached out to the San Jose Police Department for a statement.