A Louisiana school board member is being asked to resign after posting a troubling message on her Facebook page about the Confederate flag.
Vicki Bonvillain, who sits on the Terrebonne Parish School Board, made the post on July 14 and has since deleted it. According to the Daily Comet, the post read "If this symbol represents racism in America SO DO THESE." It equated a Confederate flag with symbols of other groups, including the NAACP, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, BET, Black History Month, the Democratic Party and the Black Panthers, among others.
"Our 'elected officials' want to accommodate our HISTORY to PLEASE some. WELL shouldn't ALL 'MLK' BLVDs be removed nationwide?" Bonvillain wrote in a similar July 9 post, according to the Comet.
In response to the posts, Terrebonne NAACP chapter President Jerome Boykin has called for Bonvillain to resign and called for a meeting.
"I don't think she deserves to serve the public school system with an attitude like that," Boykin told the Comet. "Slavery was wrong. The rebel flag is disturbing to African Americans."
Bonvillain, who has a personal Facebook page which is public, and also one she uses in her role as school board member, mostly posts about her deep Christian faith, but also political views. She likes conservative Allen West and posted that she "stands with Israel." She also posted a story about a Native American woman's "fond" memories of her Indian boarding school.
Bonvillain responded to Boykin on her personal Facebook page. She said she is a "woman Indian minority" and his job technically is to support her, and she would not be honoring his request to meet with her.
I can't believe one minority will attack another minority for a false political accusation. I look forward to working with my co-minority staff throughout Terrebonne Parish Schools. If I stated a wrong political term, no need for anyone to get upset. It was an honest mistake. I will not have a meeting with the President of the NAACP, like I said they would be the organization to address my matters should they arrive. We are all born in God's image. If my Christianity causes diversity, it joined other diversity encounters Mr. Boykin may have been politically challenged by.
The Comet said she didn't return the reporter's phone calls seeking comment.
The school board's president, Roosevelt Thomas, said he and others would meet with Bonivillain to discuss her social media use.
"I think she needs to be mindful of what she does on Facebook and all these things because that can cause problems for us," he told the Comet. "You can't compare the Confederate flag for what Martin Luther King stood for. MLK stood for bringing everybody together, uniting everybody. The Confederate flag stood for separation. You can't put those in the same basket. There's no comparison whatsoever."
