A Texas school superintendent has resigned after making a racist remark about Houston Texans quarterback DeSean Watson, Yahoo Sports is reporting.
Lynn Redden, who until last week had been the superintendent of the Onalaska Independent School District, tendered his resignation at an emergency school board meeting on Saturday. The board accepted his resignation.
“As an educator, this experience has taught me that I still have a lot to learn. My comments were not only uninformed but also hurtful and I understand now why they were offensive to so many people.”
Last week, as the Inquisitr reported at the time, Redden got into hot water with an angry Facebook post following the Texans’ loss the previous Sunday. During the final drive of a 20-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans, Watson made a couple of mental errors that cost his team the chance at a game-tying field goal and instead let the clock run out, sealing the Texans’ loss.
In a Facebook post that he claims he thought was private, Redden criticized Watson’s play by claiming there was a racial angle.
“That may have been the most inept quarterback decision I’ve seen in the NFL. When you need precision decision making you can’t count on a black quarterback.”
‘You can’t count on a black quarterback’: Texas educator sorry for racist post that he thought was private https://t.co/qBDbefgwup
— Raw Story (@RawStory) September 18, 2018
Redden deleted his comment, but not before it was noticed by another Facebook user, who made a screen-shot of it. From there, the situation quickly escalated.
Redden at first doubled down on his remarks, saying that, in the history of the NFL, black quarterbacks have had “limited success.” He would later say that he wished he hadn’t posted it.
Almost immediately, internet commenters began calling for Redden to be fired from the small east Texas district, which has 1,000 students and only one black teacher. One such advocate for his firing was parent Jeremy Watts.
“I don’t think he needs to be in that position he’s in. That’s why we have to deal with stuff all the time because people make comments like that. It’s horrible, it’s disgusting.”
DeShaun Watson, for his part, was somewhat passive in his response to the situation. He chose not to angrily criticize the teacher, and instead answered questions about racism he faces as a black quarterback.
“I mean, it’s everyday life, I guess. I’m all about love, so I don’t have none of that, I don’t focus on none of that, I love all people. That’s what I focus on.”
