Plum school board member to resign over anti-Muslim Facebook share

A Plum school board member who came under fire for sharing an anti-Muslim Facebook post is resigning, according to a meeting agenda.

Plum school board members have scheduled a special meeting Saturday to approve the resignation of board member Brian Wisniewski, who caused outrage by sharing the post. The post showed a picture of a man holding a gun with the American flag as a backdrop with these words: “Does it worry anybody that we have three devout Muslims in Congress who have unlimited access to our TOP SECRET GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS?”

Wisniewski initially said the sharing was an accident. In his resignation letter to the school district, Wisniewski said he was sincerely sorry for the post that happened “in a moment of frivolity.”

“It was not my intention as a school board member to detract from the educational direction and mission of the school district. I accept the responsibility for what I reposted and I have come to understand that it was wrong to do so,” he wrote.

Wisniewski also characterized the post as xenophobic and that all forms of prejudice are inconsistent the the “values I held dear during my 31 years as a member of the U.S. Air Force and the Air National Guard.”

“The repost of a meme is not reflective of who I am, what I represent and what I stand for,” Wisniewski said.

The board agenda says members will meet at 9 a.m. to “recommend the approval to accept the resignation of Mr. Brian Wisniewski as a Plum Borough School District Board member.”

Board members also will vote to advertise the vacant board position during the meeting that will take place in the school district’s library at 900 Elicker Road. The public is welcome to attend the meeting, said a legal ad notice.

Calls to current board members seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Some Plum residents, the NAACP Allegheny East Branch and Pittsburgh chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for Wisniewski’s resignation after learning the board member shared the post Feb. 1 to his personal Facebook account.

“We welcome this reported resignation and hope it sends the message that bigotry of any type will not be accepted in our state’s schools,” said Zohra Lasania of CAIR-Pittsburgh.

Wisniewski responded in a prepared statement Tuesday, saying the share was an accident.

“This specific meme was shared in succession with other varying topic memes that I shared,” he said. “I do not agree with the post.”

Dillon Carr is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Dillon at 412-871-2325, dcarr@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dillonswriting.