NH School Board Member Under Fire For Controversial Tweets
DURHAM, N.H. (CBS) - An Oyster River School Board member is embroiled in controversy over a Twitter account in which he takes aim at President Obama and Michelle Obama. He also makes numerous comments about the physical appearance of female political leaders and targets Muslims and gay marriage.
Jim Kach describes his old Twitter account in terms of a nightclub act. He admits his "jokes" about female political leaders and the president may not have gone over well.
"I was trying to be funny. It was snarky humor. And I apologize to anyone who was offended," he told WBZ.
Ruth Sample doesn't find the tweets funny at all.
WBZ-TV's New Hampshire Bureau Chief Lauren Leamanczyk reports
She's a parent who read through all one thousand of Kach's tweets. Sample is especially upset about his comments toward women.
"He focuses a lot on women's appearance and he likes to call them names if he doesn't like what he sees," she said.
Tweet after tweet mocks the physical appearance of female leaders like Michelle Obama. One says, "Queen Obooty (who has no official duties) has an entourage of 22 people costing $1,256,500.00 per yr."
Another says this about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, "With Kagan's looks, maybe the gov't should regulate what we can see."
Kach also talks religion, tweeting, "A bit of paranoia is a good thing when dealing with the Muslims."
"The public remarks that he made aren't really consistent with education values. We teach our students to be respectful to use social media responsibly," Sample says.
Sample and other parents have written to the district calling for Kach's resignation. The letters accuse him of racism, sexism and homophobia. Kach says those accusations are based in political correctness.
He admits some tweets crossed the line. "They were tasteless absolutely, but do they approach the status of making me a racist or a homophobe? Come on," he argued.
Kach says most of the tweets were written in the months prior to him joining the school board. He says he's proud of his work on the board and will not resign
