RACIST POST INVESTIGATED

It appeared on the Facebook account of a Peters Township school board member.

The Peters Township School District is investigating a racist post published on the Facebook account of a board member who is up for re-election on Tuesday.

Screenshots of numerous inflammatory posts, which were circulating this past week on social media, included a link to an article titled “10 Things That Would Instantly Happen If All Negroes Left America.” A picture showed a racist slur and the words “boat ticket to Africa.”

Written above the post: “Crime in the Burgh would go down for sure,” according to the screenshots of the apparent Facebook page of board member William Merrell.

“We are aware of the very concerning allegations regarding the Facebook post,” district spokeswoman Shelly Belcher said in a statement. “Those comments in no way reflect the values of the Peters Township School District. We are looking into these allegations, as they do not reflect the character of our district or our community.”

School board President Thomas McMurray said in an email that he could not comment for the board until members discuss the posts Monday at their next meeting. Until then, he said, he deferred to the district’s statement.

Mr. Merrell, who appeared to have taken down his Facebook account, did not return several calls and emails seeking comment on Thursday and Friday.

In an interview this past week with WTAE-TV, he denied publishing the post, which he claimed is several years old. He said it is resurfacing because political rivals are trying to interfere with his re-election bid on Tuesday.

“I did not write it, I did not forward it, I did not do anything with it,” he said. “It was hacked.”

Mr. Merrell, a retired civics and government teacher, is married to Peters Township Councilwoman Monica Merrell, according to his biography on the district website. He was first elected to the board in 2011 and has also served as chairman of the Washington County Republican Party.

Mr. Merrell’s Twitter page, which was still active as of Friday morning, showed posts bashing a range of Democratic politicians as well as Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivor and vocal antigun advocate David Hogg. The sharply partisan posts, which include words such as “skanks” and “scum sucking bottom feeders,” largely avoid the topic of race.

An exception, dated Nov. 27, 2017, contained no further context:

“Who gives a [expletive] if she is mixed raced as long as she is a good person,” the post said. “I hate to see the racists who peg everything to race ... you are the problem.”