California school trustee quits over wife’s ‘reprehensible’ tweet about Kamala Harris

A California school board member has resigned after a Twitter post from his wife about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris that he called “reprehensible.”

Jon Venverloh, president of the Las Lomitas Elementary School District board in Menlo Park, resigned his post Sunday, The Mercury News reported.

In a Twitter conversation earlier in the day, his wife, Mehridith Philips Venverloh, used a profane sexual term in reference to Harris, reported The San Francisco Chronicle.

The post read, “All she needs to be qualified is a black (profanity)! No brain needed,” The Palo Alto Daily Post reported.

Mehridith Venverloh’s Twitter account has been since deleted.

Jon Venverloh said in his resignation that his wife’s remarks made it impossible for him to remain on the school board, according to The Mercury News.

“Given my wife’s social media posts, which expressed reprehensible views that I do not agree with, I know my continued service would be a distraction from the work that needs to be done in the district over the two years remaining in my term,” Jon Venverloh said in a statement, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Mehridith Venverloh blamed her comments on a change in medication she takes for a “debilitating neurological disease,” The Palo Alto Daily Post reported.

“I believe that the change in my medication reduced my judgment between right and wrong when I made the posts,” she wrote, according to the publication. “There is no excuse for what I wrote, but I ask for your understanding that my state of mind was far from normal last night.”

Mehridith Venverloh wrote she was “deeply sorry and ashamed” of her comment, The Mercury News reported.

As the tweet circulated Sunday, more than 100 people signed a letter from the Las Lomitas Education Association condemning the remarks as racist, according to the publication.

“I almost vomited, then I cried a little bit and then I was just shaking and I was so angry,” parent Brianna Caldwell told KGO.

The school district issued a statement saying it condemns “any and all racist statements made by anybody,” The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The school board will fill Jon Venverloh’s open seat by appointment or hold a special election. Menlo Park is a community in the San Francisco Bay Area between Palo Alto and Redwood City.