Attempt to censure Plum school director for Facebook post fails

An attempt to censure Plum School Board member Amy Wetmore for a controversial Facebook post has failed.

School Director Scott Kolar made a motion at a special meeting Aug. 12 to draft a resolution to censure Wetmore’s actions and condemn her statements absolving the district of any connection to her statements.

”All I’m trying to do with this motion is just put this behind us,” Kolar said. “We need to say one thing or another and move on with it.”

The motion failed as a result of a tie. Kolar, Scott Coulson, Angela Anderson and Joe Tommarello voted in favor of censure. Vice President Mike Caliguiri, Michelle Stepnick, Adam Hill and Wetmore dissented.

The post in question was made July 8 by the school board’s finance committee liaison in a private page called “Black Lives Matter in Plum Boro.”

It appears to have been made to start a conversation about race while promoting an article and several books on the subject.

The line in question that has had many residents concerned about the conduct of their elected official states, “If you are white and you are living in the United States, you are racist. I say this as a white woman.”

Wetmore edited her post the next day and changed the broad stroke of all white people being racists to: “I would argue that racism doesn’t care about political parties. Rather, if you are white and you are living in the United States, you are a product of white privilege. I say this as a white woman.”

However, the language of her original post has sparked several calls by residents, including Plum Mayor Harry Schlegel, for Wetmore’s resignation.

Meanwhile, other residents and members of the BLM Facebook page support Wetmore’s actions.

Resident Don Pytel said, before the motion, that posts such as Wetmore’s should not come from a district official.

“We do not want activists on our school board,” he said. “They should be spending their time thinking about how they’re going to make our children safe and educated properly.”

Tommarello believes elected officials should be held accountable for what they do.

“The actions we take and the words we say matter,” Tommarello said. “They have consequences. We needed to show that the district does not tolerate such statements, and our citizens deserved to see some sort of public reprimand. I disagree with the statement she made, plain and simple.”

Board President Mike Devine was absent Wednesday.

Devine said via message to the Tribune-Review that he would have voted against the motion.

“After the post, Amy and I had a conversation, and she explained what her intent was,” Devine said. “I think her intent got lost in her verbiage. After we spoke, Amy decided to change the wording of her post. The change in the wording was more powerful than what she originally posted and still got her point across.”

Devine said Wetmore was removed from the executive session committee.

Wetmore reacts

Wetmore said she was not surprised by her colleagues’ actions.

“I was not surprised that there was a motion made, and I was less surprised by the vote,” Wetmore said. “I believe those who voted not to censure realized my willingness to hear feedback about the wording and give immediate attention to editing the post to better reflect my true intentions, as some individuals didn’t make it past the first line, which they found offensive.

“As an advocate for inclusion and equity, the last thing I want to do is turn away anyone. It is important to bring people into conversation. It is the only way to promote understanding and awareness, not frighten them off.”

A video of the meeting is available to view on the district’s YouTube channel.

Wetmore offered a longer statement and explanation of her actions, which was added into the meeting minutes.

In the statement, Wetmore said she “should have been more thoughtful and realized that the comment could be, and most likely would be, taken out of context and framed to take the term ‘racist’ to mean an individual who consciously, through explicit thoughts and actions, promotes the idea of white superiority.”

Wetmore said she never intended to offend people and apologized “to those board members and administrators who have lost valuable time and energy in dealing with backlash from my comments.”

The minutes and meeting agenda can be found in the August 2020 section of the 2020-21 school year folder in the “meeting agenda and dates” tab on the district’s website.