Monroe, Louisiana Junior High School employee, Newlyn Fontana, has resigned from her position after her highly racist text messages surfaced.
The Ouachita Parish office secretary made racist comments about the holiday celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Fontana mistakenly sent the messages to a coach at the school, and then screenshots were shared in a video posted on social media by activist, Walter Geno McLaughlin.
“Newlyn Fontana is office secretary at Ouachita Jr. High in Monroe, LA, and took time on this #MLKDay to let us know how she really feels about honoring Dr. King,” McLaughlin wrote.
“What she didn’t realize is that she accidentally sent her hate-filled message to the wrong person.”
Fontana referred to the federal holiday as “N****r day,” and repeatedly miswrote Dr. King’s first name as “Mark.”
The school’s principal sent out a letter to parents on Monday, confirming Fontana’s resignation.
“Unfortunately on Friday evening, a text message which contained a racial slur from an employee was brought to our attention,” Principal Darren Wheeler wrote. “That employee is no longer employed by the Ouachita Parish School System,” he added.
“We do not condone any racism in our schools and community.”
Parents however disagree with the principal’s claims.
Community member and digital creator Braidsandmore Scott posted about the incident on her Facebook page which had over 707 comments and nearly 1.5K shares on the post.
“God is exposing some folk,” she wrote. “This is Newlyn Fontana @Ouachita Jr. High.”
Included were screenshots of Ms. Fontana’s Facebook page, and the bigoted text exchange.
Close-up of the text messages.
Scott later received a warning from Facebook that her post violated the social media site’s “Community Standards” on hate speech.
“Soooo guess what we not backing down, I did nothing wrong but Expose the Racist she is,” Scott responded.
A Facebook user commented under Scott’s original post – confirming Ouachita Parish’s racist history.
“Anybody actually from Ouachita…and grew up in that system… we’re not shocked… lol.. we grew up with that shit,” they said.
Principal Wheeler failed to confirm the exact reason, Ms. Fontana left her position with the Louisiana school district – but the reason why she should have is pretty clear.
“These are the type of people we entrust to educate our children,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “From what I understand the school district allowed her to resign but there are many who feel like she should’ve been terminated.
Original reporting by Brooke Leigh Howard at The Daily Beast.
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