MISSION — In a statement Saturday, the school district here addressed concerns about an employee sharing racist content online.
“We have received a message from a concerned citizen who described a deeply offensive post he had viewed on Facebook. In the message, he claimed that the post was shared by a district employee,” the statement read. “Immediately upon receiving the message we investigated the matter, viewed the post, and addressed the employee. There is no way to gloss it over. The post was racist and the employee’s decision to share this racist post was a disgrace. Mission CISD will not tolerate racism.”
The district issued the statement in response to media inquiries about a screenshot of a Facebook post that was shared from an account bearing the name Will Martinez, in which he writes, “F—– funny…” in response to stereotypes used against black people.
A William Martinez is listed as a coach/health/P.E. instructor at Alton Memorial Jr. High.
The account that shared the post no longer appears to be active on Facebook.
“I wonder if we throw kool-aid and watermelons will end the riots,” the screenshot Martinez shared read. The sentence was followed by three Thinking Face Emojis.
The Mission school district distanced itself from the views in the release.
“While some may consider it to be an expression of free speech, it is our duty as leaders in this community to call out racism no matter what form it takes,” the district statement further read. “The views shared by this 1 person are not the views of Mission CISD & we are thankful this was brought this to our attention.”
The district didn’t specify which employee shared the post or the racism, nor how it would be addressed, in the statement. Craig Verley, spokesperson for the Mission CISD, said the district wasn’t releasing any more information on the subject Saturday.
