Brewster BOE Rejects Calls for Trustee’s Resignation Over ‘Racist Remarks’
The Brewster Board of Education decided Thursday night it will not call for the resignation of Trustee Krista Berardi following controversial Facebook posts she made about George Floyd’s death and subsequent public protests.
An online petition demanding Berardi be removed that was created by a Brewster High School student has been signed by more than 1,750 people in just one day.
“This is unacceptable,” Emily Sullivan, the student behind the petition, stated last night. “We need to continue to call for her resignation or removal. Kerry Cunningham (board vice president) and Erik Grutzner (trustee) have said that they want to put this event in the past… Can they so easily put the death of George Floyd in the past? Can they so easily put the centuries of systematic oppression in the past? We cannot allow her to remain on the board. We must continue calling for change.”
Berardi, an art teacher for the last 16 years who was elected to the board last year, had one Facebook post on May 31 that suggested Floyd’s death may have been staged.
A second post that was screenshot on the petition page was from June 3 where Berardi displayed a Putnam 911 report about part of Route 84 being closed due to demonstrators.
“This is the bull—- I’m dealing with right now,” Berardi wrote. “It’s been such an emotional rollercoaster the past couple of days, I just want to get out with my daughter for a couple of hours. These dumb—– need to get hosed if they don’t get off the highway. This will never make people sympathetic to your cause, it will make people hate you though.”
In seeking supporters, the petition states: “These inflammatory and racist remarks are unacceptable and she should not be allowed on a Board of Education that serves students of all races. Brewster and the surrounding area has seen a number of BLM protests and demonstrations over the past two weeks. Anyone who has pledged to serve the children of Brewster must not harbor any bias in regard to racial issues and that is clearly not the case with Krista Berardi. We ask that she is asked to resign from her position, as a show of solidarity to the BLM movement in Brewster.”
In her bio on the district website, Berardi, the mother of two teenagers, stated she considers Brewster a great place to raise a family.
“Our community is close-knit, diverse and thriving!” she said.
No one on the Board of Education could be reached for comment Thursday night.
This story is developing and will be updated with any additional reporting as new information becomes available.
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