OAKLAND — A 69-year-old Oakland man who worked as a substitute teacher allegedly sent racially charged letters to a San Leandro elementary school threatening to shoot Black students and their teacher, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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Lester Dale Lee is charged with one count of mailing threatening communications and one count of false information and hoaxes. He made his first court appearance Friday morning in Oakland.
Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $100 fine.
In May 2023, Lee allegedly mailed three threatening letters to Dayton Elementary School, according to a criminal complaint and court records that were unsealed Friday.
The first letter arrived on May 3 and was addressed to a fifth-grade teacher. Posing as a parent, Lee allegedly used a racial slur to describe Black students in the class and threatened to shoot them and the teacher if the students were not removed, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Kyle Biebesheimer wrote in an affidavit.
On May 18, the principal received an envelope filled with an unidentified powder, according to the affidavit.
The third letter arrived on May 19 and was addressed to the same fifth-grade teacher. Once again, Lee allegedly pretended to be a parent and repeated his threats, stating this time that he wanted “them all dead,” Biebesheimer wrote in the affidavit.
The school identified three Black students as possible targets, according to the affidavit. Police and school officials convened with their parents to address safety and welfare concerns, and at least one family opted to home school their child for the remainder of the academic year.
Lee, who is also Black, met the students while working as a substitute teacher in the San Lorenzo Unified School District during the 2022 to 2023 school year, Biebesheimer wrote in the affidavit.
Lee was involved in separate incidents with two of the students on April 21, 2023. He allegedly called one dumb in front of his peers and hit the second with a cane, according to the affidavit.
Lee’s employer, a third-party company specializing in education staffing, fired him following an investigation into the second incident, Biebesheimer wrote in the affidavit.
A month later, the letters started arriving at the school.
Lee is next scheduled to appear in federal court on March 28 for a status conference.
