Fort Bend ISD Board Calls For Trustee Williams To Resign

SUGAR LAND, TX — The Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees voted Monday to denounce Trustee Denetta Williams and call for her resignation on accusations of harassing a district employee, violating the Texas Open Meetings Act and referring to other board members as Nazis.

The board voted 6 to 1, with Williams being the lone dissenter, after a closed session to pass a resolution declaring Williams as unfit to hold public office and calling for her resignation. Under Texas law, school boards cannot vote a board member out of office.

A third-party investigator determined that Williams, the Position 5 trustee, treated a former district employee abusively because of his race and gender, Board President Dave Rosenthal said.

The resolution accused Williams of referring to Rosenthal as Hitler, calling another board member a Nazi and disparaging community members on social media. Williams also is accused of sending emails to a quorum of board members regarding district business in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act as well as sharing confidential information from closed session.

Board members said Williams failed to participate in the search for a new superintendent, which ended with the hiring of Christie Whitbeck from Bryan ISD in September. Williams also is accused of missing board trainings.

A former employee of the district, who is a white man, filed a complaint in June accusing Williams, a Black woman, of harassing him because of his race and gender and creating a hostile work environment. He also accused her of defamation of character, which included public calls for his firing.

At the meeting, Williams called the complaint false and retaliatory and said some of the emails in the investigation were falsified.

Witnesses said they overheard Williams yelling at the employee in a manner considered abusive, bullying and unprofessional, according to the independent investigation.

"Williams indefensibly stereotyped [the employee], admitting she believed he was doing a woman's job and questioning if he was homosexual," Rosenthal said during a reading of the investigation report.

Williams also is accused of threatening and coercing other board members to make the complaint "go away."

At the meeting, Williams rebuked the accusations of racism.

"You can call me a whole lot of things, but how dare you, as a board, stand up there and call me a racist, someone you know," she said. "I’ve put every kid, every teacher, every principal on my back."