David Bridges
Racist Facebook posts a school board candidate’s husband made more than a decade ago — including one referring to then-President Barack Obama as a “plantation house boy” — have shaken up a school board election in the Antelope Valley, reviving tensions in a district where the educational system’s battles have taken on racial overtones in recent years.
Despite earlier reporting that she would be withdrawing from the race, candidate Susan Strom told The Times she plans to stay in the running and dismissed the affair as a political attack.
The comments were made during an argument Strom — who is running for a seat on the Antelope Valley Union High School District Board of Trustees — and her husband, Doug, had with her nephew on Facebook in 2011. Along with the comment about Obama, Doug Strom also called Muslims “muzzys.”
When her nephew called Doug racist, Strom shot back.
“He is not a racist. He’s a realist,” she wrote.
Strom, who taught special education in the school district for 22 years, then took it a step further.
“Having an argument over the internet is like the Special Olympics. Weather [sic] you win or lose … you’re still r—,” she wrote, using a derogatory slur against mentally disabled people.
The revelations of the posts have shaken up the race, which pits Strom against former corrections officer Charles Hughes. The Antelope Valley Teachers Assn. withdrew its support for Strom at a special meeting called to discuss the issue, she said.
“I felt bad it had to come to this,” said Darrell Downs, an Antelope Valley pastor who revealed the Facebook posts in a news release. “She’s a school board candidate making offensive comments about the mentally disabled.”
Though the Antelope Valley Press reported Friday that Strom had announced she would withdraw from the race, she and her husband told The Times that isn’t the case.
“I think I’m gonna beat him [Hughes],” said Strom, who denied being racist or doing anything wrong.
“She is still running,” Doug Strom added. “These are from 11 years ago. They’re derogatory, I’ll give you that. My nephew was a little triggered … But she’s definitely not a racist.”
The Stroms claimed the posts were dug up by Hughes and his camp, and alleged the candidate has been “playing dirty” in the race — including by placing his campaign signs in front of hers.
“I didn’t throw any mud at this idiot. And I can tell you I believe he’s an idiot,” said Susan Strom.
Hughes could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.
The Antelope Valley Union board has been rocked by conflict and turmoil in recent years. Three board members faced a recall effort in 2019 following allegations of misusing public funds. The effort failed to make the ballot.
The same three board members had previously voted to launch an independent investigation into alleged discrimination in the district’s hiring practices and the suspension and expulsion of nonwhite students.
“When I opened that investigation into racism in the district it was like I set off a bomb in the white community,” said former board member Robert Davis, one of the targets of the recall effort.
Davis resigned his seat soon after the recall failed.
“There’s a systemic racism problem in this school district. It’s always been run by all white board members basically,” he said.
Strom said she hopes that her supporters will stick with her despite the controversy and that she can quietly move on from the drama like she did following the initial Facebook argument.
After making the comment about the Special Olympics, she wrote to her nephew: “Btw Douglas and I just revisited your bar mitzvah tape. You were really cute.”
Maya Kensington
Tessa Everly
