This Teacher's Aide Was Fired For Posting Racist Facebook Comments About Michelle Obama

By Lisette Mejia

Published on 10/4/2016 at 2:19 PM

A Georgia teacher's aide has been fired for reportedly posting racist comments about Michelle Obama. Jane Wood Allen, an educator at Chestatee Elementary School in Forsyth County near Atlanta, called the first lady a "gorilla" more than once and posted other disparaging remarks, according to a local CBS station.

"Effective Monday, October 3, 2016, Jane Wood Allen has been relieved from duty and is no longer an employee of Forsyth County Schools," school district spokesperson Jennifer Caracciolo wrote in a statement that you can see below. Caracciolo told POPSUGAR in an email that the "the principal was notified of the posts on Friday morning. We were closed for Fall Break, but started an investigation into the matter."

On Aug. 27, Allen allegedly shared an article about the first lady on Facebook and wrote, "I admire a gorilla more than I admire her. (Wait I forgot, she is a gorilla)! She is the worst example of a First Lady ever! (Oh sorry, I meant gorilla not First Lady)!"

On another recent article about Obama that she shared, Allen wrote, "This poor Gorilla. How is she going to function in the real world, by not having her luxurious vacations paid for anymore? She needs to focus on getting a total make-over (especially the hair), instead of planning vacations! She is a disgrace to America!"

Allen's Facebook page is no longer searchable, but the school district became aware of the situation after a woman named Roni Dean-Burren posted screenshots last Friday of Allen's comments, drawing outrage from people on social media who called for Allen to be fired.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified Dean-Burren as a Ph.D candidate at the University of Houston and quoted her as saying, "I think that this concept of referring to black people as monkeys or apes or gorillas is an age-old sort of racist comment that we've seen in this country for way too long." Dean-Burren's post has since received almost 16,000 Facebook shares.