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Tim Post

School board member denies authorship of disparaging comment

Comments raised concern.
Concerns have been raised over a Facebook comment from the account of a Columbia Heights school board member. The comment has since been deleted.
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A Columbia Heights, Minn., school board member says he didn't write a comment on Facebook that appeared to disparage Muslim people — even though the comment on a Star Tribune story appeared with his own Facebook credentials.

The comment, posted through the Facebook account of Grant Nichols Sept. 6, appears to disparage the bathroom habits of Muslims. It's now been deleted.

Nichols says he didn't make the comment and doesn't agree with it. He's unsure how the comment was posted, but speculates that someone at his workplace could have posted it through his phone.

"I should have kept it better locked down than that," he said. "I should have been watching that stuff. I didn't do anything wrong, but I feel bad that it happened."

A spokesperson for the Columbia Heights school district says an investigation is underway, and a special meeting to address the issue will be held Tuesday.

Here is the text of the Facebook message, which was in response to an earlier comment that mentioned Muslims:

No they are just unsanitary by bringing water into a bathroom and making a mess. Besides washing their feet, armpits in the sinks in the bathrooms. Powder on the toilet seat. Touching door knobs after they wipe their butt with their hands. They leave it a mess and no one says anything about that? Thats ok though. You probably don't work with any of them?