Florida Principal Removed After Defending Pool Party Cop

The principal of a Florida high school lost his job this week after writing an online comment in defense of the police officer who pulled out a gun while responding to a disturbance call at a pool party in Texas.

Alberto Iber posted a comment to an article about the Friday pool party incident in McKinney, the Miami Herald reports, which included a video showing officer Eric Casebolt bringing out his gun around a group of unarmed black teenagers and then pushing a girl to the ground. Casebolt resigned after an investigation was launched into his behavior.

“He did nothing wrong,” Iber, who headed the nearly all non-white North Miami Senior High School, wrote in a comment on a Herald article that showed his Facebook picture, name and occupation. “He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.”

“Judgment is the currency of honesty,” the county’s superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a statement about Iber’s removal. “Insensitivity — intentional or perceived — is both unacceptable and inconsistent with our policies, but more importantly with our expectation of common sense behavior that elevates the dignity and humanity of all, beginning with children.”

Iber told the Miami Herald that he meant to post the comment anonymously. “I support law enforcement, and also the community and students that I serve as the proud principal of North Miami Senior High. The comment I posted was simply made as the result of a short video that I watched and my personal opinion,” he said. “I regret that I posted the comment as it apparently became newsworthy and has apparently upset people. That was not my intention in any way.”

Read more at the Miami Herald