BEAVERTON, Ore. (KOIN) — Many Beaverton parents signed a petition to fire Beaverton School District Deputy Superintendent Steve Phillips after he retweeted a controversial tweet from a woman saying “illegal aliens” are “more dangerous than assault rifles and should be BANNED from our country.”
On Tuesday, after the petition had gathered over 700 signatures, Phillips announced his resignation, the school district announced.
Today, I have accepted the resignation of Deputy Superintendent Steve Phillips, effective immediately.
I want to reiterate my values, the values of our District and the Beaverton School Board. We recognize the value and worth of each and every one of our students we serve. We are committed to ensuring all students have every opportunity to reach their potential. We are committed to restoring trust in our community.
Thank you for your support and understanding.
Superintendent Don Grotting
Beaverton School District
Grotting released a statement on Monday night that said the views in the tweet shared by Phillips “are not in keeping with the standards and values we hold” in the school district.
“The views are contrary to our deeply held values as expressed in our Strategic Plan and Pillars of Learning,” the statement from Grotting said. “We apologize for the hurt this has caused our staff, students and community.
“We recognize the value and worth of each and every one of our students who come through our doors. We are committed to ensuring all students have every opportunity to reach their potential. Our staff work hard every day to support our wonderfully diverse students and families, and we are committed to learning from our mistakes and continuing this work.”
The petition said “Phillips’ decision to publicize his xenophobic and anti-undocumented views are grounds for dismissal from BSD.”
Below is a screenshot of Phillips’ retweet. He has since deleted his Twitter.
Mary Ann Mendoza, the person who made the tweet that Phillips retweeted, told KOIN 6 News, “It’s a sad state of affairs when an American is attacked and possibly forced from their job when they are merely re-tweeting a tweet that states factual information of what is happening in our country.”
The BSD’s population, according to its annual report, is made up of: 48% white; 24% Hispanic/Latino; 16% Asian; 8% Multiracial; 3% Black/African-American and 1% Pacific Islander.
Amy Brownell is a mother of six kids, all of whom were adopted from Haiti. Five of those kids are current or previous BSD students. She said she was really disappointed in the retweet, as well as the district’s “non-apology.”
“The district needs to take action,” Brownell said. “There words in the response via email and social media was insufficient to repair the damage that has been done to the community — to rebuild the trust that the community should have in the school district — they need to take further action instead of a non-apology, really.”
On Tuesday morning, a woman named Rachelle Gunter Phillips, identifying herself as Phillips’ wife, wrote a Facebook post regarding the incident, saying it was a huge mistake and that her husband is not a racist.
“None of you know Steve — if you really knew him you would know that this is a huge mistake. My husband is not racist — he comes from a large, diverse family — a brother who adopted a Chinese baby girl — a sister who adopted 6 “Hispanic” children and our own youngest daughter being a mix of Caucasian/African American/Native Indian. In the past few years we recently saw a huge need for good foster families and we embarked in that journey. We have made our family huge by taking in sweet children to our home and loving them from ALL races. We have taught our own children that everyone is a child of God. And we will love them all the same. My husband is not a racist he is a human who made a huge mistake. His only social media resource is Twitter and rarely uses it. Whether it was inadvertent or not it probably doesn’t matter after reading all the hate here. He is truly sorry but please … he is not racist — just human who loves kids and loves his job and strives to be the best he can be and I will stand by him. I’m so sorry for the hurt he has caused but please know that is not truly the character of Steve Phillips.”
Rachelle Gunther Phillips also provided the following letter from Stephen Phillips to Grotting:
