Brainerd Public Schools is looking into an anti-Trump meme that was posted to an elementary school Facebook page.
The meme, posted Saturday night to the Garfield Elementary School Facebook page, showed then presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during a 2016 presidential debate. The picture was paired with text saying, “People love to hate Hillary, but she called Trump a Russian puppet right to his stupid f*****g face. I’ll always respect her for that.”
According to the Brainerd Dispatch, the post remained on the Facebook page for 25 minutes before it was removed. Following the incident, the school district issued a statement saying the post “reflects a level of discourse that runs contrary to the District’s basic educational mission.”
“The administration of Brainerd Public Schools was notified Saturday evening that an unauthorized and inappropriate politically-based post appeared on the social media account of one of its schools,” the district said in a statement. “The post was removed soon after it was discovered, as it was not authorized by the District and reflects a level of discourse that runs contrary to the District’s basic educational mission.”
The Garfield Elementary School Facebook page has since been disabled, and the district is investigating the situation.
“The District does not support or otherwise endorse the views expressed in the post,” the district said in a statement. “The affected social media account is currently disabled while the district investigates how this incident occurred. The District is also reviewing security and management processes on all Brainerd Public Schools social media accounts to prevent this type of situation in the future.”
According to the Brainerd Dispatch, only two individuals had access to the school’s Facebook page, and both denied posting the meme. Alpha News reached out to the school district to follow up on the internal investigation. As of Wednesday evening, the school district would not say whether the origin of the post has been determined, nor whether any changes were put in place to prevent a repeat incident.
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