Students protest high school principal's resignation following board members alleged racist remarks
Hundreds of students and parents attended a school board meeting in order to protest the sudden resignation of a high school principal in Minooka, Ill. It is rumored that Principal Ronald Kiesewetter tendered his resignation after a school board member made an alleged racist remark.
Brent Edwards, the district's director of community relations, confirmed to The Herald News that Kiesewetter and the board mutually agreed for him to resign at the end of the school year. Both students and staff members of Minooka Community High School District 111 were shocked when the popular principal, who joined the school prior to the 2015-16 school year, informed them he would be resigning.
Many at a school board meeting held on Tuesday voiced their grievances regarding Kiesewetter's upcoming departure, with some speakers expressing outrage surrounding a rumor circulating on social media regarding a board member.
Students at the school claim that a school board member, Lori Lakota, informed the principal that she did not want Kiesewetter to hire a diverse staff, as she did not want a black person teaching her children. One speaker at Tuesday’s meeting, in a video obtained of the meeting by WGN9, said that the board member's comment is just one of "multiple incidences of racial injustices that have plagued this school and this district for years."
"That comment was never made and I see people that I know here, everyone, I never said that. You're taking a rumor from Twitter and you're attacking me," Lakota said at the meeting. Board president, Mike Brozovich, maintained that the resignation was mutual and addressed the allegations against Lakota. "I assure you that these rumors are false," he said. "I can tell you that the board would never act against any employee for opposing racism."
Lakota and Kiesewetter, as well as a representative for the Minooka Community High School District, did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle's requests for comment.
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