Dear Commons Community,

The Buffalo Board of Education voted 6-2 yesterday to issue an ultimatum to Board member Carl Paladino who has been under national fire for his racially charged comments about President and Mrs. Obama: Resign within 24 hours, or the Board will petition the state to remove you. As reported by several media outlets:

Carl Paladino was Donald Trump’s New York campaign co-chair and currently sits on the nine-member Buffalo school board. In recent days, he’s faced intense criticism for his answers to a local newspaper’s questionnaire about what he would like to see happen in 2017. Paladino said he’d like President Barack Obama to die from mad cow disease and called first lady Michelle Obama a man who should go live with gorillas. 

The residents of Buffalo are sick of Paladino making their city look bad and  mobilized yeserday, first for a protest downtown in Niagara Square and later at a special school board meeting at city hall.

The board met to consider a fiery resolution that said if Paladino did not resign within 24 hours, they would petition New York Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia to remove him. Elia has so far declined to weigh in on the controversy.

The resolution, introduced by board member Hope Jay, called Paladino’s remarks about the Obamas “unambiguously racist, morally repugnant, flagrantly disrespectful, inflammatory and inexcusable.” It also said they reflected negatively on “the Buffalo Board of Education, the City of Buffalo and its leadership and its citizens, the State of New York, and every decent human being in America and abroad who has been shocked and offended by his words.”

When Jay read her resolution Thursday at the school board’s special session, the crowd gave her an enthusiastic standing ovation. 

Two board members ― Patti Pierce and Larry Quinn, who are considered Paladino allies ― did not support the resolution. They said they would like to see Paladino apologize to the students of the district rather than resign.

Paladino has got to go!

Tony