Ventura County teacher recorded making racist comments to fruit vendor suspended

The Moorpark Unified School District in Ventura County has suspended and is investigating a high school teacher after he was recorded yelling racist comments and profanities at a sidewalk fruit seller earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reported.

District personnel identified the teacher as Gnel Frankian. The district hired him full time in August to teach French at Moorpark High School. He previously worked at Antelope Valley High School.

In the 90-second video, Frankian is seen walking from his vehicle at a gas station toward the sidewalk. He engages a male vendor of a fruit cart dubbed La Palma Fresh Fruit and twice yells, “What is your problem?” Both men were recording the confrontation with their cellphones, the Times reported.

A pair of gas station patrons attempted to intervene, but Frankian tells them that he “almost had an accident,” and blames the vendor.

Frankian then walks within a few feet of the vendor and yells, “Get the f— out of here, you f—ing illegal.”

The district has provided counselors for Moorpark High students. The school’s student population is 55% Latino, the newspaper reported.