Facebook meme sparks controversy between Worcester Co. community members, commissioner
WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. – Some controversy stirred up on Facebook between a Worcester County commissioner and some of her constituents.
County commissioner Caryn Abbott posted a meme reading, ‘This is the face I make when someone gets pissed off about something I posted.’
The post came amid a back and forth between the community and officials regarding school district funding, and eventually circulated in the Worcester United Facebook group.
47abc spoke with concerned parent, Tom Simon, who said the post was insensitive, as many parents are concerned about their children receiving the best education possible.
“When you’re an elected official, you have to respond to all of your constituents, not just the ones that voted for you,” Simon said. “Openly mocking a large group of parents that truly care about the kids is just incredibly unbecoming of an elected official.”
In response to the back lash she received, Abbott issued the following statement to 47abc:
“Over the last few weeks, several in this group have gone so far as to question whether I am receiving a financial gain in helping bring a business to Pocomoke, and defamatory remarks in this public forum, but this is their constitutional right, just as my post on my page was, also. I am sorry if feelings were hurt in this group. I am always open to communicating with people who are respectful, which is the majority of Worcester County. It’s hard to have respectful dialogue with a group that claims to be Uniting Worcester, when they’re creating a divide with their rhetoric,” Abbott said.
“There’s nothing unifying about threatening to have a commissioner’s wife lose her job in an open forum, constant heckling of any opposing viewpoint and disparaging myself and other commissioners. One person in this group has gone so far as to threaten sexual violence against a sitting board member. With administrators and teachers association reps involved in this group as well, Worcester United has become a political activist group that is in no way helping the budget process for the BOE, but creating more of a divide with the teachers, support staff, commissioners, law enforcement and our community,” Abbott added.
47Abc spoke with Simon and he said the individual who Caryn Abbott claims threatened sexual violence against the sitting board member is not affiliated with Worcester United.
