Petition Backs Toms River School Board Member, Calls For Rally

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A petition backing Toms River Board of Education member Daniel Leonard is calling for a rally at the August school board meeting in response to calls for his resignation over Facebook posts attacking two Muslim-American congresswomen.

The petition on Change.org titled "Exonerate Daniel P. Leonard, Toms River BOE" had just over 240 signatures as of 3 p.m. Monday. The petition calls the outcry over Leonard's Facebook posts and demands for his resignation a witch hunt and "a coordinated international campaign to disparage his integrity and fitness for his position on the school board by a group which government organizations have tied to known terrorists."

It also calls for those who support Leonard's refusal to resign to rally outside the Board of Education meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 21.

The outcry began last Tuesday after the Council on American-Islamic Relations published screenshots of Facebook posts Leonard made in April about Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

Omar, a Somalian refugee who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, has sparked anger with remarks regarding the 9/11 attacks that critics say minimize the killings of nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. Others have said Omar's comment was taken out of context and that she was trying to draw a distinction between the terrorists who committed the attacks and the Muslim population, USA Today reported.

Tlaib has spoken out against actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and called for a hunger strike to try to shut ICE down.

Leonard's posts called Omar a terrorist and of Tlaib he wrote: "My life would be complete if she/they die ..." Leonard has said he was specifically referencing the hunger strike and that he meant he hoped she would starve to death.

CAIR, which had representatives at the school board meeting on July 24, called those posts and one sharing a meme called "Sharia Barbie" racist and called on the board to condemn them and to throw Leonard off the school board. Read more: School Board Member's Anti-Muslim Facebook Posts Stir Anger

School board attorney Melanie Appleby said the board does not have the power to oust one of its own members, and added that power lies with the voters. Leonard, who represents Beachwood, was elected in 2016 and his seat is up for election in November.

On Thursday, Toms River school board president Joseph Nardini called on Leonard to resign from his seat, saying the controversy was "distracting the board from its mission and purpose. We must lead by example and set an example to our students and community that reflect our goals, ideals and vision for the future of this district."

Leonard has refused to resign, and has criticized Nardini for calling for his resignation and for not reaching out to him before issuing the statement. Read more: Toms River Board Member Refuses To Resign Over Facebook Posts

The petition, which highlights Leonard's military service — he retired in 2017 after serving with the U.S. Army and is a combat veteran who served several tours in Afghanistan — does not name CAIR specifically, but Leonard at the school board meeting and on Facebook said CAIR is a terrorist organization.

The U.S. government has not named CAIR to its list of terrorist organizations, but the group has been criticized for statements that have supported Hamas and Hezbollah. Omar spoke at a CAIR event in 2018, which is where her remarks regarding 9/11 took place.

CAIR-NJ executive director James Sues, who spoke at the Toms River school board meeting, issued a statement July 23 calling for Leonard's resignation, saying, "The bigoted views expressed by Mr. Leonard have no place in an educational system that seeks to celebrate diversity and encourage students of all faiths and backgrounds to excel scholastically and to make positive contributions to our society. This is just a painful reminder of the extreme divisiveness that characterizes the current political climate at the national level."

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