ODESSA, Texas — Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees member for position four, Doyle Woodall, has come under fire. Woodall’s insensitive, some say racially charged, Facebook posts have been brought to light.
On Monday, the Texas State Teachers Association called for his resignation, but Woodall tells NewsWest 9 he is not planning on going anywhere.
For Woodall what you say, or in this case, what you post online, matters.
He has learned that lesson the hard way, spending the last week doing a lot of listening after several of his social media posts came under fire for being racially insensitive.
“He explained to me culturally from a black man’s perspective what that post meant to him and I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach because that was not the intent of that post," Woodall said.
Woodall says he regrets what he posted, removing all of the posts from his personal Facebook page.
"I’m not asking for understanding or sympathy...I’m just telling you that I am a better person because all of this happened," Woodall said. "My eyes have been opened, there was no intent of insulting or hurting anyone in this.”
The school board member believes this experience has been eye-opening.
“This has removed the blinders from eyes so that I can see and learn more about the cultural differences," Woodall said. "I don’t want to make those same mistakes in the future.”
But some believe it is a lesson learned, a little too late.
Including ECISD board president, Donna Smith, who personally called Woodall on Monday asking him to consider resigning.
“I really, really wish, as much as I like Doyle, I wish he would go ahead and fix this by resigning," Smith said.
Woodall has been on the board for 11 years and has 11 months left in his term.
The board did not be discussing the future of Woodall’s position at their Tuesday school board meeting. Smith tells us the agenda for that meeting has already been set.
The school board will discuss it at the following meeting on June 16.
Woodall tells us, people are not just calling him asking him to resign, but that he has been getting dozens of anonymous threats from people.
“I’ve been getting calls from people that want to kill me, my wife, my children, my 80-year-old mother," Woodall said. "Telling me they want to burn my house down."
Woodall has reported those threats to the authorities.