Tennis instructor Paul Marcum, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, who allegedly gave a Nazi salute and shouted “Heil Hitler” during the meeting in Detroit, has lost his job as a tennis instructor at a local health and fitness club, the Metro Times reports.
Marcum reportedly made the gesture toward Suzanne Busdiecker, who is Jewish, and two African-American women. All three women supported mask mandates.
“It’s a hate crime and it happened on school property,” Busdiecker, a mother of a student entering middle school after a year of virtual learning, told Deadline Detroit. “I’m not taking it lightly.”
Following the meeting, Superintendent Embekka Roberson notified parents of the Nazi salute and said the district will not tolerate hate.
“Birmingham Public Schools emphatically denounces and will not tolerate any act of racism, disrespect, violence, and/or inequitable treatment of any person, including actions and statements made at Board of Education meetings. It is in situations when people feel strongly about a matter, and emotions run high, that we most need to model appropriate behaviors for our students,” Roberson wrote. “Last night’s meeting did not consistently display the behaviors that we expect from our students and community.”
Speaking to the Metro Times, the owner of Sports Club said that Paul Marcum’s bio has been taken off their website after news got around that he flashed the salute during a heated debate at the Aug. 17 meeting regarding mandatory masks in schools.
