California Department Of Education In Hot Water Over Employee's Inappropriate Email Sent To Study Researchers

An employee of the California Department of Education (CDE) has cast the government agency in a bad light. Someone has allegedly sent an inappropriate email using an official address. The department, however, is refusing to reveal any details.

Instead, the CDE immediately issued a statement through spokesman Bill Ainsworth to acknowledge that its officials are aware of the incident and that they are acting on the issue. Allegedly, the emails related to a "personal matter," thus the need to keep the investigations private, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Ainsworth, however, assured the public that this incident shouldn't reflect on the agency as a whole. "These emails in no way reflect the views of the California Department of Education," the spokesman said. "We expect CDE employees to conduct themselves using the highest professional standards."

We are aware that a @CADeptEd employee has been allegedly sending out inappropriate emails. We are investigating & taking immediate action.

— CA Dept of Education (@CADeptEd) December 6, 2016

But in a separate report, it was revealed that the incident involved members of a San Diego State University research team and a CDE employee named Thomas Pacheco. The team emailed the agency to share the link to their report on food and housing among college students for the department's information and awareness. The only reply they apparently received from the state's Education department employee was an explicit, "Go f--- yourself," the Fresno Bee quoted.

Professor and co-study author J. Luke Wood assumed that there might not be any intent for the email sender to be inappropriate. He thought that it could have been a "horrible auto-correct," so he called up the CDE to clarify. Since he had the name of the sender, whose signature was at the bottom of the official email, the professor knew just who to look for.

But Thomas Pacheco instead accused the study authors of sending spam. When the professor tried to explain that it was a legitimate report, the CDE employee apparently hanged up on him. Further calls went directly to voice mail and Wood told the news outlet that he still has not heard anything from the department as of press time.