CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — People packed the Clay County school board’s meeting room Thursday night to call for Robert Alvero, the board member representing district two, to resign after controversial comments he made online.
We first reported last month when Alvero posted a video to Facebook where he said, “they’re good decent people, that’s the 20 percent of the people I have met that are African Americans. The other 80 percent, they’ve been nasty, they’ve been rude, they’ve been problematic.”
The video has since been taken down, and Alvero had posted another video afterwards, apologizing for the original comments he made. He said it wasn’t his intention to offend anyone.
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But during the first meeting of the year for the Clay County school board, Alvero denied the claims made against him that his comments were racist.
“I have already addressed the false accusations made against me,” Alvero said, “a school board meeting is not a forum to discuss political matters or personal matters.”
Alvero’s comments were made after more than two hours of community members speaking against his comments on social media and calling for his resignation.
“Mr. Alvero, your comments are below, so far below, beneath the dignity of the office to which you were elected,” said Rev. Dr. Brandon Frick, one of the dozens of people who spoke during the meeting, “your lawyer has painted you as the victim so I will not waste my breath asking you to do the right thing and resign.”
After posting his apology video, Action News Jax spoke with the attorney that Alvero hired to represent him, Anthony Sabatini.
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“I don’t think the comments are so-called racist in any way. I think that what we’re seeing is the reemergence of woke-ism and politically correct culture,” Sabatini told us.
The Clay County school board didn’t take up any school district-related matters during their meeting, setting aside all of their time to listen to the concerns from the community regarding Alvero’s comments. None of the school board members made direct comments responding to Alvero’s comments, but Clay County superintendent David Broskie spoke up after community members finished with their comments.
“The comments that brought you here tonight don’t reflect the mission of the Clay County schools,” said Superintendent Broskie.
The school board said only Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the state commissioner of education have the power to decide whether Alvero keeps his position. But Sabatini, Alvero’s attorney, has told us he plans to file a lawsuit if Alvero is forced to resign.
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