By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(ELGIN, IL) A member of the Elgin Area School District U-46 school board has stepped down, months after using her Facebook page to refer to the American flag as “toilet paper.” The Daily Herald reports that board member Traci O’Neal Ellis announced her resignation from the school board at Monday night’s meeting.
Last September Ellis, who is black, used Facebook to voice support for African American NFL players who refused to stand for the national anthem. In her post, Ellis wrote “that flag means nothing more than toilet paper to me.” She also wrote, “And I promise you, I would take #TakeAKnee at school board meetings if my doing so would not be disruptive to kids and a distraction to the work we need to do for them.”
The Daily Herald says the posting received more than 1,000 replies, and resulted in death threats against Ellis. On Monday night Ellis said she has now decided to resign from the school board, saying that while she stood by her comments, she apologized for what she said was the “distraction” the controversy caused.
The Herald reports that Ellis told the board meeting, ”The intentionally stoked ensuing uproar caused quite a distraction to this district and to my life. There is no doubt that the vicious campaign of hate and the racist and white supremacist vitriol that followed was intended to destroy me. But, as it turns out, it worked for my good. Flaggate has created numerous opportunities for me to take my social justice activism to the national level.”
The Herald reports that while several board members gave Ellis a standing ovation, Phil Costello and Jeanette Ward, her most vocal opponent, did not stand.
Read the entire Daily Herald story here .
@ 2018 WLS-AM News
