A Fresno college board member who accused a highschool soccer coach of calling her son a racial slur is answering to elevated stress to resign after admitting the accusation was a lie.
Fresno Unified Board Trustee Keshia Thomas mentioned on a podcast in 2022 that Bullard Excessive Faculty Soccer Coach Don Arax known as her son a racial slur in 2013 — however later admitted it wasn’t true.
Arax filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to Thomas the identical yr of the allegation.
“That public belief is gone, and he or she ought to resign and do the accountable factor,” Fresno Trainer Affiliation President Manuel Bonilla mentioned.
Thomas’ son additionally signed a sworn assertion in July saying the coach by no means known as him the slur, and he by no means advised anybody that he did. Nonetheless, he reversed his place a number of weeks later — saying he did inform his mother the coach known as him a racial slur and he lied in his sworn assertion.
The district mentioned it’s reconsidering whether or not it would proceed to cowl Thomas’ authorized charges within the defamation lawsuit filed by Arax, which have amounted to greater than $350,000.
“FUSD agreed to assist cowl trustee Thomas’ authorized charges at a time once we had no purpose to query her account,” the district mentioned in an announcement. “Since then, new info has come to gentle. In her deposition, Thomas acknowledged that a few of her earlier statements weren’t correct, and her son made an analogous acknowledgment in his personal declaration.
Thomas has issued an announcement apologizing to Arax and his household.
“On the time, I believed my son. As a mom, when my little one advised me one thing had occurred involving race, I took him severely. As a college board member, I additionally believed I had a accountability to take severely something that might have an effect on whether or not college students felt secure, revered and cozy of their college surroundings. My concern was not just for my son, however for each little one entrusted to our faculties,” she mentioned.
“I acted on what I believed to be true and from what I believed was an honorable accountability to face up for kids and in opposition to injustice. I’ve now discovered that the knowledge I relied upon regarding Mr. Arax was not correct,” she added.
However she additionally believes the FTA’s makes an attempt to push her into resigning are “irresponsible.”
“FTA’s try to show an act of accountability right into a political demand for my resignation is irresponsible and distracting. Additionally it is troubling coming from a labor group whose motion is constructed on due course of, honest illustration and the proper to be heard,” she wrote.
“I used to be elected by the folks of my neighborhood, and makes an attempt to avoid their voice by political stress are basically undemocratic. I cannot resign for acknowledging the reality and doing what I imagine is true.”
The case could possibly be settled in mediation, or may head to trial in December. Arax claimed greater than $10,000 in damages when he initially filed the case.
Fresno Unified is the third-largest college district in California.
