GODFREY — The chairman of the Lewis and Clark Community College board of trustees withstood calls Tuesday from his fellow board members, activists, former students and faculty to resign over Facebook posts they said were Islamophobic and xenophobic.
A board motion at a meeting Tuesday attended by about 200 people to formally call on Chairman David Heyen to resign failed by a 4-3 vote. The board does not have the power to remove a member but can request they step down.
The motion followed calls last week by the Missouri chapter of American-Islamic Relations and other groups for Hayen, of Dorchester, to resign. Heyen, who joined the college’s board of trustees in 2017 and was elected chairman last month, had shared Facebook posts on his personal page they said were “anti-Muslim” and “anti-immigrant.”
According to snapshots of Heyen’s Facebook page taken by CAIR, Heyen shared items including two posts that said “Anyone notice that there is no terrorism in Iceland or Japan? Weird coincidence, there are no Muslims there either” and blamed “unvaccinated illegal alien kids in the public schools” for spreading diseases including measles and smallpox.
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