A Beaverton School District deputy superintendent who retweeted a claim that undocumented immigrants "were more dangerous than assault rifles" and should be banned from the U.S. resigned Tuesday.
Steve Phillips' resignation came a day after the school district apologized for the official sharing the post and denounced the tweet. A petition was also started calling for Phillips to be fired.
Phillips was one of two district deputy superintendents. He was hired in 2016 after serving as the superintendent of the Malheur Education Services District. His annual salary is $171,148. He has issued no public statement on the matter.
A message left at number listed under Phillips' name was not immediately returned Tuesday.
In a statement Tuesday, Superintendent Don Grotting said the district is "committed to restoring trust in our community."
Phillips' tweets came to light last week after he shared a March 25 tweet by Mary Ann Mendoza, the mother of an Arizona police sergeant who was killed in a 2014 head-on crash with an intoxicated wrong-way driver. The wrong-way driver was an undocumented Latino man, who also died in the crash.
Maureen Wheeler, a district spokeswoman, said Monday that district officials had since spoken with Phillips about the retweet, that he "realizes his mistake," but that there were no plans to publicly discuss what steps were being taken to address the issue with him.
-- Everton Bailey Jr.
ebailey@oregonian.com
503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey