School board president to resign amid fallout from teacher's forceful removal

ABBEVILLE - Vermilion Parish School Board President Anthony Fontana is reportedly resigning early amid a whirlwind of controversy, according to a report from Abbeville Meridional.

Fontana sent a letter to the newspaper Friday announcing his intentions.

Fontana fell under a cloud of controversy after he tried to silence a teacher's questioning of the district superintendent's raise when teacher salaries hadn't been increased in 10 years. Video of the teacher Deyshia Hargrave's forceful removal made national headlines shortly afterward.

Fontana, who is serving his sixth term on the board, had previously announced that he would not run for re-election in 2018.

“When I was re-elected three years ago for my sixth time, my goal was that this would be my last term. That is why I announced last year that I would not seek re-election in 2018," the letter states. "However, over the course of the last two years many things have occurred that made me think long and hard about resigning my seat."

Fontana wrote that he felt he needed to ensure that Superintendent Jerome Puyau got a new contract - and that was accomplished at the last board meeting.