The Johnston Community School District officials do not conduct social media searches as part of their hiring processes, and will move forward with hiring a new director of equity, inclusion and belonging despite recent criticisms over his Facebook posts.
The conservative news site The Iowa Standard highlighted the posts from Louis Fountain, who would fill that director spot.
The posts, which have since been hidden, included tips for protestors over the summer, concerns about police actions and political comments, including one that read, On my next trip I m packing the ELECTORAL MAP, I will know where NOT to stop for gas, posted the day after Election Day in November.
Organizers and speakers at a Des Moines vigil Thursday had a clear message: Now is the time to speak up, show up, take action and join the Black community in the struggle against injustice and racism, they said.
Speakers such as Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, referenced the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. On Tuesday, Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd.
Abdul-Samad and others at Thursday s vigil said the guilty verdicts don t amount to justice for Black America. Rather, it only was a step toward accountability. We don t have justice because we don t have justice for Breonna Taylor . We don t have justice all the way back from Emmett Till, Abdul-Samad said.
IPR
The speakers talked about continuing the fight toward equity for Black Iowans at the Black vigil in Des Moines last night. We re going to continue to do this. This group of people you see here, we re not tired, no, we re jaded, Reverend Rob Johnson (second from left) said. When I say Black lives, you say matter! Black Lives!
Rev. Rob Johnson bobbed his fist as more than one hundred people responded the way he instructed last night at a vigil in a Des Moines park to support central Iowa s Black community.
The vigil was meant to serve as a reminder to people to continue acknowledging the struggle of Black Americans and to work to fight inequities. Many speakers talked about former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict in the murder of George Floyd.