Board member sparks controversy; gets censured

Mt. Hood’s board of directors decided to censure member George “Sonny” Yellott’s remarks from the July 13 board meeting. Those remarks include a comment he made about Mt. Hood’s failed bond attempt, and a meme of President Obama in a noose. For the full story about the board’s decision to publicly express abhorrence, visit http://portlandtribune.com/go/42-news/316924-196164-mhcc-board-censures-director-yellott.

Yellott is Mt. Hood Community College District board member for Zone 4, and Republican candidate for House District 48 in the Oregon Legislature.

After making disparaging remarks during the July 13 board meeting where he referenced “Illegals” as the reason MHCC’s recent bond measure failed to pass, he was outed for posting offensive messages on his personal Facebook account including a depiction of President Barack Obama being lynched.

For his part, Yellott claims he doesn’t know how the image of the president appeared on his Facebook account. Pleading ignorance has not helped his case. His own political party denies any ties with him. The House Republican action committee also denies any affiliation with Yellott, according to The Oregonian.

Preston Mann, Oregon House Republican spokesperson, said “George Yellott’s Facebook post is absolutely abhorrent… He should immediately remove the post, withdraw from running for office, and apologize to Oregonians for posting something so blatantly offensive and disgusting.”

When KOIN-6 TV reporter Lisa Balick asked Yellott if he would heed the call from his party and pull out of the Oregon Legislature, his answer was quite simple. “Will I resign? No! I haven’t done anything wrong…”

For its part, the MHCC board of directors called an executive session on July 19 to discuss Yellott. While the Facebook posts were mentioned, the meeting was set to address a formal complaint made against Yellott for his comments at the July 13 board meeting. Yellott was recorded during the meeting saying “Illegal immigration is driving everything out of sight. The only reason for all of this is because of all these people…”

Board member Michael Calcagno told The Oregonian that during the executive session, both he and other members of the board asked Yellott to resign. Yellott again refused, later telling KOIN-6 the board is being “pretty one-sided about it.”

While it’s clear that the Obama-lynching meme coupled with his “Illegals” statement is what set this latest controversy off, they aren’t the only offensive messages offered by the board member. His Facebook page is full of posts that could be construed as racist, sexist, or homophobic.

The Obama-hanging meme has been removed from the page, but there are plenty of other posts including one that says transgender persons have a psychological disorder and another claiming that African-American slaves were treated better than Irish immigrants in early America.

The MHCC community has given a mixed response to the matter.  One second-year student, who wished to remain anonymous, points out that regardless of how offensive Yellott is, no rule or law had been violated.  As for a punishment, he said “If they want him out then during elections is how that is solved.”

Sean Davis, a writing professor at Mt. Hood (one of many other occupations), took this idea one step further, “…these views, as ignorant as they seem, are his.”   For Davis, considering how much of this type of rhetoric is being heard on a national level, Yellott’s comments have lost some of their shock value. “He put the president I voted for twice in a noose in a meme? The Republican presidential candidate tweets white supremacy memes on a weekly basis.”

Davis said the best response available to those who oppose Yellott’s views is to “get mad.” He went on to say “…remember that anger when the next school board election comes around. Run for the position (yourself) or at least vote for someone who won’t be spouting off non-sequitur(s) about breast feeding and immigrants.”

Shannon Valdivia, a MHCC public speaking instructor and debate coach, said “I am troubled that we have a board member who is not representing the interests of all of our students. (Yellott’s) racist and sexist rhetoric is not appropriate on a college campus (and) his views are not representative of the majority of our students, staff and faculty.”

Many people took to social media; some spoke in defense of free speech, many others voiced disapproval of Yellott. Regardless of opinions, Yellott will likely serve on the MHCC board for the remainder of his four-year term. Voters could recall him as an elected official, but that would require a petition with 2,300 valid signatures. Yellott won’t be up for re-election until May 2017. He ran unopposed in 2013.