Braintree School Committee Member Apologizes For Facebook Posts

BRAINTREE, MA — As residents called for two Braintree school committee members to resign over Facebook posts, one of them publicly apologized at Monday's meeting.

"At the time and in the heat of the moment, I did not see them as insensitive, but realize some were offended, and to you, I'm sorry," Karla Psaros said. "Gun violence is something I've been fighting against for years, and I've met many families and individuals who have been impacted by such tragedy I would never want anyone to deal with such atrocities."

The other school committee member, Kelly Cobb-Lemire, didn't address the Facebook post at the meeting. Patch has asked Cobb-Lemire for comment and will update this story if she responds.

Dozens of residents protested in front of Braintree Town Hall Wednesday calling for Psaros and Cobb-Lemire to face recall elections, the Patriot Ledger reported.

Psaros and Cobb-Lemire exchanged publicly-viewable comments about a post made by one of the 10 victims in the March 22 shooting in a Boulder, CO grocery store. Denny Strong had asked people to make donations to the National Foundation for Gun Rights instead of giving him gifts for his 20th birthday.

"Wow. One of the Boulder victims, 20-year-old Denny Stong, celebrated a birthday this month and asked friends to donate to the National Foundation for Gun Rights whose website says it works 'to expand pro-gun precedents and defend gun owners'," Cobb-Lemire wrote. "Now if that isn't ironic, I don't know what is."

"I wonder what he is thinking now??? Oh wait, he can't tell us. So sad," Psaros said in her Facebook response.

After Psaros made her apology, the School Committee voted to have its policy subcommittee create a social media policy for members before immediately going into executive session for more than an hour.

The social media controversy was the second one Cobb-Lemire faced since getting elected to the Committee in 2019.

Cobb-Lemire was the target of an unsuccessful recall campaign last fall, where residents said the school committee member shamed a Braintree veteran on Facebook.

"Yesterday, I made a food pantry delivery to a gentleman I don't normally deliver to," Cobb-Lemire posted. "He had a 'Veterans for Trump' sign in his window, and then he came out with an NRA shirt on. So wishing I believed in getting rewards in some afterlife."

Cobb-Lemire later apologized for the post.

The town charter requires organizers to collect at least 400 signatures from voters, and at least 50 need to come from each of Braintree's six voting districts as the first step for a recall election.

If the recall petition is certified,organizers would have three weeks to collect signatures from 2,700 registered voters. Ten percent of each district's voters need to sign on to this petition. The town council would then set a date for recall election, where a majority would be needed to remove a candidate from office.