New York Man Labeled a ‘Racist’ for Wearing a Gorilla Costume To School Board Meeting

An upstate New York man is suing a school district near Rochester after the superintendent accused him of engaging in “discriminatory and racist” behavior by wearing a gorilla costume to a school board meeting. The founder of Rochester Wealth Management, Jeff Briggs, has filed a summons with notice, the first step in filing a defamation lawsuit. He told a local paper, the Democrat & Chronicle, on Tuesday, “I have been wrongfully defamed, and I’m going to see it through and expose the truth.”“I will let the jury decide which side is a racist and which side is not,” he said.The lawsuit stems from his decision to wear a gorilla costume and a MAGA hat when he attended a February 2025 Penfield Central School District school board meeting held to discuss whether to allow an LGBTQ-themed book, “The Rainbow Parade,” in school libraries. However, the stunt did not sit well with the Penfield superintendent, Tasha Potter, who is black. She released a statement calling the stunt racist. “It is with deep concern that I address an incident that occurred on our campus recently,” Ms. Potter said in a statement last year. “During the Board of Education meeting, a person appeared in a gorilla costume. This act was deeply troubling, as primate comparisons have historically been used to dehumanize people of African descent, often attempting to strip away their essential qualities such as intelligence and emotional depth.”She added, “This behavior is not only offensive but also discriminatory and racist.”Ms. Potter said that she “received messages from students and families expressing concern for their children’s safety in light of the racist incident involving the gorilla costume.”Last year, a school board member, Emily Roberts, told a local TV station, WHEC, “The intent behind that was to intimidate, the superintendent is a woman of color, and there are four members that were present on that board that are all women of color.”However, Mr. Briggs told the station that he was not aware Ms. Potter was black and that he did not wear the costume to target any board members.Rather, he said he was inspired to wear the costume because “my good friend’s grandson had complained about children in his class identifying as cats — wearing tails, whiskers, ears — and he got suspended twice.”“All I wanted to do was walk in with that to get a reaction, to show the school board that [dressing like an animal] could be disruptive,” he said.He told the Democrat & Chronicle that while he was not explicitly mentioned in Ms. Potter’s letter, he received death threats and threats against his business.The Penfield Central School District did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

New York Man Labeled a ‘Racist’ for Wearing a Gorilla Costume To School Board Meeting

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