A school committee member in Lowell, Massachusetts, is under fire after using an anti-Semitic slur on live television.
Mayor John Leahy said Wednesday night that he was calling for a joint meeting of the Lowell School Committee and the Lowell City Council, where he would present a motion to demand the resignation of Robert Hoey.
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"Earlier today, a member of the Lowell School Committee, Robert Hoey, used an offensive and repulsive racial slur on a televised morning show," Leahy said in a statement. "As a result, I am calling Lowell's elected officials to join me in demanding the immediate resignation of Robert Hoey as a member of the Lowell School Committee."
In a video posted on the Jewish Journal, showing Wednesday's broadcast of a local cable access show Hoey hosts, he uses an anti-Semitic slur in reference to a former school administrator, adding, "I hate to say it, but that's what people used to say behind his back."
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According to the Jewish Journal report, the show continued for nearly an hour and a half without any guests speaking out against the slur.
"Throughout this academic year, this school committee has focused on issues of equity and racial equality in our schools and in our community," Leahy said. "To fully represent the interest and diversity of our students and our community, we must not only join together in rejecting this language, but continue working towards that more perfect Union."
