A Florida elementary school hired an ex-cop linked to the Ku Klux Klan in a law enforcement report -- and angry parents want to know how he got the job.
David Borst resigned as deputy chief with the Fruitland Park Police Department after his connection to the KKK surfaced last year in a report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. On Aug. 10 he began a job at the Wildwood Elementary School, working in the cafeteria. The next day angry parents “lit up” Facebook, demanding answers about the hiring, WFTV reported. On Wednesday Borst was out of a job.
Sumter County school district officials told the station a background check was conducted before Borst was hired.
“How do they even get in?” parent Samantha Verges said in an interview with the station. “He shouldn’t have been able to squeeze in and get in there. That’s terrible. Who else could get in?”
Fruitland City Manager Gary La Venia told the Associated Press last year that the information about Borst and the KKK came from the FBI, which learned about the connection during a broader investigation.
The report named another Fruitland officer as having ties to the white supremacist group. He was fired.
Last year after he resigned, Borst told the Orlando Sentinel he has never been a Klan member, the AP reported.
Another parent told the station that hearing about Borst’s cafeteria job concerned her.
“Kids are smart and they pick up on things. He might say a word or something and the child might hear it,” Yoma Isaac said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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