A Washington state high school wrestling coach has been fired after mocking the death of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.
The Bethel School District has fired first-year wrestling coach Dave Hollenbeck for mocking the tragic death of George Floyd on Facebook.
Dave Hollenbeck posted a photo of himself on the floor, smiling, with a knee to the back of his neck which is similar to images caught on viral video of Floyd pinned down on Monday before he died.
“Not dead yet I’m doing this for Are police officers the media is a race baiting machine and I’m tired of it I’m going to speak out every time if you don’t like that I’m sorry but I love All people..Wake up America,” Dave wrote in the first caption of his post.
In a second post, Dave wrote: “This is for all the race baiters and people that don’t What they’re talking about when they’re saying this could kill you.”
Following the post that has sparked outrage since he shared it, Bethel School District spokesman Doug Boyles in a statement to NBC affiliate KING-TV, said it is investigating the incident.
Boyle’s said: “We have completed our investigation. Dave Hollenbeck is no longer employed by the Bethel School District. His behavior was not consistent with our equity initiatives and nondiscrimination policies,”
The high school wrestling coach, seeing how much backlash his post gathered told KOMO News that he eventually realized his post was “insensitive,”
He said: “I did not tell any lies; I showed that I was OK from a knee on my neck. That is it. I did not say anything racist and maybe it was insensitive at the time.”
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He then added: “I’m not a racist man. I don’t have that in me, my children don’t have that in them, I didn’t instill that in them. I’m sorry that I offended anybody, that was not my point. I was trying to show something.”