FRESNO, CA--Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) Board Trustee Terry Slatic remains under fire as the community takes action to recall his area 7 seat after going to a cheer-leading practice unannounced, threatening cheerleaders in reference to the Bullard High School student black-face incident in May. Slatic is accused of using his "white privilege" to intimidate students on campus, as well as to members of the community; with no remorse, he intends on fighting the FUSD board's decision.
Slatic was attempting to silence the cheer-leading squad from further talking about the incident that has caused a community uproar ever since it went viral on the internet; the student painted her face in black, said a racial slur and chuckled about it thereafter, while another friend filmed it and posted it to social media.
At the Wednesday night FUSD board meeting, the FUSD board voted to censure Slatic who has done other incidents against students of color, upon his own authority; several investigations regarding Slatic's conduct were released, revealing the cost of these investigations to taxpayers to be more than $100,000. Slatic must also take an anger management course to lift censure.
In fact, Slatic had a physical altercation with a student on the Bullard High campus in January, grabbing him by his backpack. This incident was caught on camera, but no charges were filed against Slatic when the video was released in February.
Members of the community are resorting to a recall effort which is an expensive endeavor that will require 20% of the voters in his area to agree to the process first; otherwise, Slatic will remain in his seat until 2022.
Black parent Ingram Tate, whose daughter is one of the Bullard High cheerleaders also traumatized by the blackface incident, has said from the beginning she has been left out of the conversation; she was never contacted in regards to after-meetings held about Slatic's threatening incident, (watch above video of press conference with Tate.) She had to call FUSD and take the initiative, herself, to find out the particulars of the matter.
Community activist, Rev. Floyd Harris felt that Tate and her daughter are being mistreated by FUSD because they are black, (see above video for further explanation.)