Plum School Board Member To Resign Over Anti-Muslim Facebook Post
Follow KDKA-TV: Facebook | Twitter
PLUM BOROUGH (KDKA) -- The Plum School Board has called a special meeting for Saturday to accept the resignation of a board member who published an anti-Muslim post on his Facebook page.
In the message that has now been removed from his Facebook page, board member Brian Wisniewski posted: "Does it worry anybody that we have three devout Muslims in Congress that have unlimited access to our top secret government documents?"
It was a re-post.
Wisniewski has since submitted his resignation. The board is set to meet Saturday morning to accept it.
The Plum Borough superintendent released this statement earlier this week, condemning the posting:
"We have been made aware of a re-posted comment on a Board member's personal Facebook page - this District is not affiliated with this posting in any way. We vigorously disagree with and condemn the content of the post and we do so in the strongest possible terms."
Some Plum-area residents believe Wisniewski's remark was inappropriate.
"I think as a private citizen he can hold that thought and that belief, but as a public official, there's no place for it. You need to be very neutral," resident Dennis Hopper said.
"Especially someone who's involved with education, educating our kids and their ideas. The kids should be taught the right way. I think he should go," resident Jim Nesbit said.
Former Plum School Board member Michelle Stepnick said the remarks made her angry and sad, especially for students. She says the current school board and superintendent eliminated the diversity committee and she thinks it's time to bring it back.
"I'm hoping we... out of this comes that diversity committee and it comes back and we start having conversations, and maybe the sensitivity and the awareness would be there and somebody would think twice before doing something like that again," Stepnick said.
KDKA News went to Wisniewski's home Tuesday night to try to talk to him, but no one came to the door. We also emailed him asking for an interview, but got no response.