Columbia Heights, Minn., school board member to resign over Facebook comment

A state legislator says a Columbia Heights school board member accused of making an offensive social media comment about Muslims has agreed to step down.

I take responsibility for the online Facebook comment about a few of my co-workers at my full-time job in Chanhassen that was offensive to the Muslim community. Laine said she attended a meeting on Friday with Muslim leaders and Nichols where he announced his resignation.

Nichols had forcefully contended that he didn’t post the comment disparaging the sanitary habits of Muslims and also had said he wouldn’t name the person who used his smartphone to do so.

“It’s affecting our community and our city and that I don’t like to see, so I wanted this turmoil done with”, Nichols said. The statement says Nichols met with superintendent Kathy Kelly Monday morning and told her that he meant to resign before the school board meeting Tuesday and after his news conference. With that in mind, the school district said, Nichols’s resignation has been tentatively placed on the meeting’s agenda. I apologize to them all for the hurt it caused.

“This district has been an important part of my whole life”, Nichols wrote in his resignation letter.

During the board meeting, Nichols applauded the students for standing for what they believed in. Now is the time for the community to come together to heal and to promote an environment leading to educational success and achievement.

“There is still fear and misunderstanding about Islam and Muslims”, Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said.

“We have also accepted the resignation as an additional sign of good faith”, Hussein said in a statement. A community event, “Muslim Voices”, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Islamic Center of Minnesota in Fridley.

Nichols claimed someone else had taken control of his phone and made the post, but the furor did not die down. But Nichols and local Muslim advocates are choosing to focus on the so-called resolution, even if it comes with only a partial explanation. “I don’t feel like throwing him under the bus”, Nichols said during a school board meeting last month.

Nichols was elected to the board in 2014.