An Oakland Laney College faculty member who was placed on leave after the school launched an investigation into allegations that he sent xenophobic messages to a student has apologized, the instructor told NBC Bay Area.
Professor Matthew Hubbard said in a message to NBC Bay Area, “I put an apology on Twitter, but it was not well received so I removed my account.”
According to Hubbard and two other sources who saw the tweet before it was removed, the instructor admitted to having sent two inappropriate emails.
“I apologize for my insensitive actions which caused pain and anger to my student, and which have now caused pain and anger to an untold number of people who read my two inappropriate emails on the internet,” the tweet read, according to Hubbard.
Hubbard was placed on leave Friday after allegedly sending racist and xenophobic messages to a Vietnamese student about the pronunciation of her name.
In the email exchange, Hubbard asked student Phuc Bui to anglicize her name because he said it sounded like an insult in English.
CORRECTION 12:50 p.m., June 21: A previous version of this story misspelled the student's name. We regret the error and apologize for the mistake. The story has since been revised with the correct spelling.
