Buffalo school board member Carl Paladino is not taking what he considers to be slanderous comments and illogical accusations leveled against him by three minority board members and the board's chief lawyer over the past months without condemning his accusers and warning he will take all appropriate action to protect his reputation if the attacks continue.
Buoyed by email responses he has received generated by his "Slander" email that he sent out, Paladino issued the warning of possible legal action or other unspecified options at his disposal to board members Barbara Nevergold, Sharon Cottman, chief board attorney Rashondra Martin, and board member Theresa Harris-Tigg in a letter last month.
An example of the email responses Paladino received is one from Victor who wrote Carl, Great to see you standing up for yourself against these race baiting, incompetent individuals."
Another email, this one from Doug, said "Way to go Carl! It is about time someone called these people for their slanderous ways. When they are losing an argument they always go to the racial/sexist card in order to stifle the argument. I applaud you for taking a strong stance against their attempt to subvert the debate."
Belton-Cottman accused Paladino of bullying tactics, saying "he's gone after every ...African-American female who's an authority."
In response, Paladino has repeatedly stated that there is no discernible basis for accusations that he is a racist or a sexist, and vowed to protect himself however necessary against any further attacks.
Paladino is pushing for change at the board to improve the condition of Buffalo schools and has been in a long-running battle with minority board members over what he considers to be their negative contributions to improving Buffalo schools.
His actions led to the filing of a civil rights complaint against him by the district's lawyer, Rashondra Martin. Paladino has kept up a strong email campaign against the minority board members' actions, and is reaching out to journalists and others to try and deliver the message that for the schools to rise up from the ashes of their current state there has to be changes on the board.