Webb City R-7 official: "Some of our staff' shared racist, anti-Muslim, hate-filled tweets with Turner Report

Brenten Byrd, who will officially take over as superintendent of the Webb City R-7 School District July 1, has taken an unusual approach to winning over the staff- he continues to throw them under the bus.

Byrd, who currently serves as assistant superintendent for instruction and curriculum began his war against staff members after racist, anti-Muslim, hate-filled, conspiracy theory promoting material dating back several years was discovered on the Twitter (X) account of the woman who was hired to replace him, Hurley Superintendent Allison Pope.

Pope told Byrd her account had been hacked.

Judging from the message Byrd sent to staff members, he believed Pope's claim that she had been hacked even before the investigation took place.

Our tech department was notified and immediately started working with Dr. Pope and I to try to find out when and how.

In an article that was posted on the Webb City Sentinel Wednesday night, Byrd indicated he first learned about the offensive tweets from a surprising source.

Byrd says the matter of the offensive tweets and retweets on X (formerly Twitter) came to light when “some of our staff” shared them with Randy Turner, of The Turner Report website.

This surprised me since Byrd had already sent the message to his staff before the Turner Report article was posted and the comments on offensive tweets and likes allegedly made by Pope were already circulating throughout the community.

 Byrd also has no way of knowing whether it was someone on his staff or a member of the community who shared the tweets and retweets with the Turner Report.

In fact, Webb City residents who have been sharing information with me for years, but who are not connected to the school in any way, were among those who contacted me.

But Byrd immediately attacked his staff.

Byrd told the Sentinel he is "100 percent supportive" of Pope, as if there was still some question about that.

In his letter to staff, Byrd criticized those who shared information about Pope's alleged tweets.

"Please let this serve as a reminder that if you see something that doesn't seem right or is derogatory in nature on a social media account, please do not gossip about it, but instead let an administrator know so we can immediately take action."

In the letter, Byrd listed a number of reasons why it was obvious Pope had been hacked.  

None of those reasons, most of which were batted down by those who have knowledge of how hacking works, were included in the Sentinel article.

Byrd has asked the district’s technical department to investigate the source of the offensive posts. After reaching some dead ends, he says the district is asking X to further the investigation.

If that doesn't indicate the investigation has been completed, Byrd made it clear by emphasizing that Pope was not the kind of educator who would discriminate against anyone.

Byrd says that after all the supportive letters and emails he has received from Pope’s colleagues at Hurley that he is 100% sure that she is an “upstanding mentor and educator, loves kids and will help any kid.”

 

Some images and details from the tweets and retweets that were discovered on Pope's X account can be found at the link below:

The Turner Report: Newly hired Webb City R-7 official says she is not responsible for racist, anti-Muslim comments on Twitter feed (rturner229.blogspot.com)

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