Bristol, VA School Board Chairman responds to calls from local organization to resign over controversial Facebook posts
A local organization called Future Black Leaders Coalition is calling for Bristol, Virginia School Board chairman Steve Fletcher to resign after comments he made in an exchange on Facebook.
Fletcher commented on a graphic shared depicting a black man being shot by police while a white man with a gun walked by under the caption, “This is America.” The post appears to illustrate the controversy surrounding the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI and Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year old who is accused of killing two people and severely injuring another during protests in the city.
Fletcher first replied saying, “Later ! Have a great life!.” The individual who shared it replied in part saying, “I think Dr. Perrigan (Bristol, VA Public Schools Superintendent) will be very interested in your comment. Fletcher replied, “what you posted is trash. Call me, we can call him together on conference call.”
Fletcher furthered responded, saying, “What a stupid and oblivious caption you would post! Is this spam of some type? You need to be let out to pasture.” That individual replied, “are you addressing me?”, and Fletcher said “if you posted that, I am.”
A petition has been created for Fletcher’s resignation from the school board for what the petition calls demeaning and inflammatory remarks towards the individual who shared it.
The Future Black Leaders Coalition also shared the exchange between Fletcher and the individual on their Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/futureblackleadersco/posts/156468622761350
We reached out to Fletcher for comment, who sent us this statement.
“In a nutshell, I saw a very graphic cartoon someone had posted of 2 policemen shooting someone in the back. The caption read something like….”this is my America” . I have many local police friends and I always defend them and their good work they do for our city. My comment was in their support only. No other event, topic or meaning ever entered my mind. Honest , pure and simple.”
