The principal of an elementary school recently came under fire for his abrasive comments directed at a resident in his community, who now wants the principal removed.
Brimhall Elementary School Principal Ryan Vernosh became defensive on Facebook when a Roseville resident disagreed with a post that encouraged children to use transgender pronouns.
“Take your bigoted bullshit off my timeline,” wrote Vernosh, who was hired this year to be a principal in the Roseville Area Schools district.
Alan Holasek, a Roseville resident and an educator at Mayer Lutheran High School, spoke at the district’s school board meeting Tuesday to share Vernosh’s public responses to him on Facebook.
When he learned that a new principal was hired at Brimhall Elementary this summer, a school where his wife used to tutor, Holasek said he decided to look up the new hire’s Facebook account.
Holasek found “numerous posts that were problematic,” he said at the meeting, pointing out one which promoted “transgender pronoun usage for children.” This was troubling to Holasek, who voiced his concerns in the comment section of Vernosh’s post.
“Kids need to learn that the world does not revolve around their feelings and that you cannot ‘transition’ from one sex to another,” Holasek commented. “This type of teaching is incredibly damaging to children, and if you are going to be a principal of a school, you need to change this.”
Vernosh responded by calling Holasek’s comments “disparaging” and “bigoted.” He claimed Holasek “puts innumerable youth at risk” with his views.
“How dare you, as a high school employee, contribute to the pattern of increased suicide risk by denying people who they are,” Vernosh wrote.
Holasek shared at the board meeting and on Facebook that studies in Sweden — a country that “has been really affirming of transgender ideology” — show that the country still experiences a higher risk of suicide for those who identify as transgender.
When Holasek wrote that only two genders exist, Vernosh responded that he could not “be more factually wrong.”
“Sex isn’t even a binary,” wrote Vernosh.
The new principal left a few links for Holasek to “review and learn,” stating that, “If you cannot bring yourself to do that, I would kindly ask you to take your bigoted bullshit off my timeline.”
Vernosh said he would “send positive energy” to the children at the school where Holasek teaches, with the hope that the “harm” he does to them is “minimal.”
“If this principal is willing to say these kinds of things publicly on his social media account to a taxpaying resident of his school district, what do you think he’s going to be willing to say to our children, our teachers, and our staff members behind closed doors when no one else here is listening?” Holasek asked the board.
At the school board meeting, Holasek called for the principal’s removal.
“This principal, in my opinion, has demonstrated that he is not capable of love or respect for those who question the ideologies he intends to push onto our children,” Holasek said. “We strongly urge you to find another principal who will be willing to work with the residents of our school district, and not bully or denigrate them.”
In an email to Alpha News, Communications Director Josh Collins said that the comments made at the meeting and prior to the meeting were shared with the district’s human resources department.
“Appropriate steps were taken. Hiring decisions and personal matters are under the purview of the superintendent and district administration, not the school board. I’m not able to comment on the details of personnel matters,” Collins said.
WATCH:
Rose Williams
Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.
