A Chula Vista school board member stepped down from her role Wednesday night after parents condemned offensive tweets she posted about her sexual prowess and demanding someone bring her an 18-year-old boy.
Kate Bishop joined the Chula Vista Elementary School District board in California in 2020. In response to the outcry, she apologized to those who may have been offended by her old Twitter comments and announced that she will step down from the board president role. She will continue to serve as a board member, according to the district.
The damning tweet read: "I'm pretty sure I hit my sexual peak today. Somebody bring me an 18 year old boy, STAT!" wrote Bishop in 2012, with the hashtag "hormones."
Another tweet from 2011, "Off to the park to see what hot 3-year-old girls my kid can hit on," with the hashtag "ValentinesDay" also drew parents’ ire.
The school district has already distanced itself from the tweets.
Katie Davidson-Brock, a Chula Vista local and mother of three children, one of whom attends Chula Vista Elementary School, told Fox News in an interview on Tuesday, "I think that someone with this type of character is unfit to serve."
She’s not demanding Bishop resign, but she does want an explanation.
"I get that most of this stuff is just bad jokes but I would still like to hear or the district address it," Davidson-Brock said.
At the beginning of Wednesday night's meeting of the board, Bishop said that community members are “rightfully upset” about her posts. She attempted to explain the tweets as attempts at jokes, according to Fox 5.
“I was an aspiring stand-up comedian at the time, parenting my young children and only engaging politically to vote and make offhand comments as a member of the public,” Bishop said. “Now as a parent of schoolchildren and involved in education policy, I see this as a teachable moment, that things put on the internet last forever.
Parents Kimberly and Matt Dickson are asking Bishop to step down, citing the tweets as concerning and questioning why the school district is not taking action.
Joe Thomas, the father who shared the old tweets posted on Facebook last week: "Her comments are appalling, disturbing and unprofessional for any educator in the public school system."
According to Thomas, Bishop switched her Twitter account to private mode 24 hours after he reached out to the superintendent's office on Thursday.
The school district's response was that they engaged in a dialogue with Bishop. "I am not aware if there was any further action taken regarding this dialogue," wrote the assistant to the superintendent and school board, Nancy Teehan.
Bishop, in addition to stepping down from her role as president, took responsibility for her posts in her public statements.
"I own my past mistakes and I have been more mindful of things that I post publicly online since then," Bishop wrote in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday.
Related
