School board trustee accidentally replies-all to email, insults colleagues, but doesn’t want to apologize

Will Lerner
·Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

Toronto is quickly becoming the most entertaining Canadian city. We all know about Mayor Rob Ford, but have you met Sam Sotiropoulos? He represents Ward 20 for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), a body that oversees over 250,000 students.

Global News reports that on December 6, Mr. Sotiropoulos mistakenly replied all to an email sent from Ward 12 trustee Mari Rutka that contained information about unspecified event, and oh man, he said some things. The email read:

“Thanks for the update, Mari, I will try to make the 27th of January a priority. As for the informal invitation, I appreciate the gesture, I really do, but as it is not a meeting, I will not be attending. Some of our colleagues positively make my skin crawl; I don’t need to subject myself to their malicious misery, ill-breeding and sourpusses. It would be bad for my digestion. I would probably end up puking in someone’s face as I wouldn’t want to mess up your legendary kitchen.” (emphasis mine)

So yeah, not exactly the most diplomatic correspondence, and probably not something you’d want everyone to have eyes on. So, after realizing his error 8 hours later, did he apologize? Uh…not so much:

“Whoops! I hit Reply All by accident. Oh well, it’s not like I said anything untrue. That’s exactly how I feel. If you felt offended, perhaps you might want to ask yourself why it is that I feel as I do and how your behaviour may or may not have contributed.” (emphasis mine)

Hey, that’s some brass on this guy. But apparently, these emails are consistent with his personality, or at least Ward 4 trustee Stephnie Payne thinks so. She told Global News, “I wasn’t shocked because it’s not surprising. His email’s usually quite dirty.”

Ms. Payne also said, “He’s a very nasty person. Honestly, he is totally disgusting.” Global News, in their coverage, showed footage of a very tense meeting of the trustees. We highly recommend clicking and watching that, by the way.

So, after the emails and now media coverage, is Mr. Sotiropoulos finally giving in a little? Not really. He told Global News, “I don’t regret my comments, it’s my personal opinion. It’s how I feel. And if some of my colleagues are troubled with what was in that email, they could’ve complained. We have a process here at the board…”

All of this is highly ironic considering the blog entry he wrote the day after Nelson Mandela passed away; the same day he accidentally sent those emails. He was speaking as to the influence Mandela had on him as a politician…

“As a parent and public official, I am mindful that my actions and words are examples for my child and others to follow or condemn. Despite myattention, I occasionally let slip a remark or do something that warrants censure; I am the first to admit that I make mistakes. We all do. It is how we recover from our mistakes that makes all the difference in how we, and others, ultimately perceive our selves.” (emphasis mine)

Those are some really nice words there, Sam. I’m sure that when you took to Twitter, you tried to make amends. Surely there you must be showing some kind of remorse. Let’s see…nope. More of the same!

And our personal favorite:

Oh, Sam.

More info:Global News, TDSB