Band director no longer at Ascension middle school after racial slur on social media – The Advocate

A band director at an Ascension Parish middle school who used a racial slur in a Facebook post last week, later removing it and saying he was using it in a sarcastic response to the Confederate monuments issue, is no longer employed at the school, an Ascension Parish School Board member said Wednesday.

Board member Troy Gautreau confirmed that Dutchtown Middle School band director Richard Bresowar is no longer at the school.

Gautreau said he didnt have any information on what happened between school district administrators and Bresowar.

We (School Board members) cant get involved in personnel issues, Gautreau said.

However, Bresowar said Wednesday that he had resigned earlier this week after teaching at the school for about 16 years.

The Facebook post by Bresowar was in response to a May 3 post by Ascension Parish Councilman Daniel Doc Satterlee, who asked what people thought about a bill in the state House that would prevent New Orleans from removing Confederate war monuments.

Bresowars post, which he later removed, said, Core support would be about a hundred percent in this town. Got to keep those n****** in their place let them know the South will rise again.

After deleting the post, Bresowar said he posted a second note explaining why he made the comments.

"I favor the removal of these monuments, as in my opinion they are inappropriate memorials of people that fought a war against the United States in support of slavery," Bresowar wrote.

"The post I wrote was a poor attempt at sarcasm and could be taken to mean the opposite of what I intended," he said. "I have removed the post. I used the N word in the post to illustrate the racism that I believe underlies the reason that many whites want these statues to remain in place."

"I realize that this was in poor judgment," Bresowar said. "I will be making no further political posts on social media."

Bresowar said Wednesday that he has been an educator for 28 years and began teaching at Dutchtown Middle School in 2001.

District Superintendent David Alexander said in a statement issued Monday that the School Board believes the teaching profession occupies a position of public trust involving not only the individual teachers personal conduct, but also the interaction of the school and the community."

Alexander said the school district was "thoroughly investigating the incident and will take appropriate action, according to the statement.

Jackie Tisdell, the school districts public information officer, said Wednesday the districts investigation into the incident was complete but that we cannot divulge any information as this is a personnel matter that has been handled in accordance with School Board policy.

According to Dutchtown Middle Schools band website, Bresowar also served as a district director on the board of the Louisiana Music Educators Association.

Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion.

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Band director no longer at Ascension middle school after racial slur on social media - The Advocate