Texas District Tells Principal To Remove 'Questionable' Photo From Online

A high school principal in a Dallas suburb can't shake a photo incident from 2019 as he fights for support from his school district.

Before James Whitfield became the principal at Colleyville Heritage High School, he was named the Colleyville Heritage Middle School two years ago.

Shortly after his hiring, Whitfield said he was quickly notified by the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District to remove a photo of him and his wife from social media after someone found it and sent it to the school board, NBC DFW reported.

The photo in question was professionally taken when Whitfield and his wife Kerrie were on their anniversary more than 10 years ago. It shows Whitfield, who is black, going in for a kiss with his wife, who is white.

"I look at the picture, and I look at the words above it, and it says, 'Is this the Dr. Whitfield we want leading our schools?' I showed it to my wife, who immediately begins to well up with tears," he told the TV station.

"They said, 'Could you take it down? Can you take this picture down? Can you hide it?' and I asked, 'Why? What's wrong with the picture?' It was, 'Hey, I am trying to avoid any conflict," the educator continued.

The photo incident only came to light recently after Whitfield published a lengthily Facebook post in response to a recent school board meeting where he was called racist and questioned about critical race theory. He called the photo incident "a sign of things to come."

Whitfield believes that the school district telling him to take down the photo was inappropriate and that someone took issue with his interracial marriage.

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD says that isn't the case. In a statement to the station, the district said:

When a social media concern is brought to the attention of the district, we have a responsibility to review it. Some of the photos the district received contained poses that are questionable for an educator, especially a principal or administrator. It had absolutely nothing to do with race. As a new campus principal, we wanted to provide a smooth transition for Dr. Whitfield to Heritage Middle School, which is why we advised him of the concern and made a request for the photos to be taken down from Facebook.