Community Decries Racist Posts By Central School Board Member

BERKELEY, NJ — Racially charged social media posts by a member of the Central Regional Board of Education drew rebukes from staff members, former students and community members, who urged the district to take action at the district’s school board meeting Monday night.

The posts by Heather Koenig, who was elected to the board in November on the platform of “Supporting Parental Choice,” have circulated on social media since late last week.

What were the social media posts?

One post features Leonardo DiCaprio holding up a glass of wine with the text reading “BLM protesting for 3 whites [sic] guys and just like that…all lives matter.” Another is a screenshot of a TikTok showing a young black man with text on it saying “Who remembers last year when them yt ppl got mad and raided the capital like terrorists?” The final post shows retired U.S. Marine and Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter who was attacked by a grenade, and former NBA player Lamar Odom. The text over Carpenter reads “Took a grenade to save lives, no press during recovery.” The text over Odom reads “Took drugs at a whore house to get high, press updates every hour of his recovery.” Below the two is a sign that says “stop making stupid people famous.”

“Sorry but not sorry,” Koenig captioned one of the posts, which can be seen here at NJ Education Report.

Koenig declined to comment on the matter after Monday’s board meeting.

What happened at the meeting?

"Central has a long history of race problems," said Willie Jacobs, a Central Regional graduate who has been teaching in the district for more than 20 years. Jacobs said he thought the district had put those issues behind it.

“I feel like I can’t go back to work tomorrow,” said Jacobs, who called the posts disturbing and said they made him cry. “What do I say to my daughter, my son, my students?”

Jacobs told Patch seeing the posts devastated him and he felt bad for the students and staff that had to see it.

“Hopefully it doesn’t continue,” he said.

Maya Joyner, a 2017 Central graduate, was emotional when she talked about the posts.

“Central Regional is being hateful for people of color,” Joyner said. “How am I supposed to support my school when it does nothing for people of color?”

Central Regional School District is predominately white, with 70.3 percent of the school, according to US News. Black students only make up 6.3 percent of the district’s population.

“Students can’t reach their full academic potential if they don’t feel safe and supported at their school,” said Bahiyyah Abdullah, president of the Toms River chapter of the NAACP. She urged the district to take disciplinary action against Koenig.

Disciplinary action was encouraged by many of the speakers, including Pastor Donnie Clyburn of Pathway of Life Ministries of Toms River. Clyburn said it was not about getting rid of somebody, it was about understanding.

“Obviously, I’m an African American,” Clyburn said. “I may not understand every culture. But I know what’s right and what’s wrong. That’s not culture, that’s character.”

What can be done?

There are few things a school board and school district can do to discipline a sitting school board member. The rest of the board can request a member’s resignation but those actions on a school board are rare.

An ethics complaint could be filed by any other board member or a member of the public, and the state education commissioner may remove a board member from office for violations of the New Jersey School Ethics Act, according to state law.

It is a rare occurrence and only comes on a recommendation by the School Ethics Commission.

Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides said he wanted to meet with those who spoke out about Koenig’s posts as soon as possible in order to help fix the issue.

“I don’t want one or two things to represent Central,” Parlapanides said, but also said that it does. He suggested forming a committee including Clyburn and Abdullah to tackle racial issues.