Atlanta senator: Fire DOE official who posted racially charged comments

UPDATE Tuesday morning: The GaDOE has fired Jeremy Spencer. Read the statement here.

In the state Senate this morning, Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, urged School Superintendent Richard Woods to fire a key deputy who posted racially charged Facebook posts on his public page.

The AJC reported Monday about questionable posts on the Facebook page of Associate Superintendent Jeremy Spencer, who runs the Georgia Virtual School and is the brother of state Rep. Jason Spencer, R-Woodbine. A reader alerted the newspaper to the Facebook postings, which were visible to anyone on the social networking site.

Within 80 minutes of our request to Spencer for comment on the posts, the Facebook page was taken down. You can see some of the images here.

Calling the images and comments "vile and beyond the pale," Sen. Fort said Spencer's postings went beyond "a mistake in judgment."

"The superintendent of the state Department of Education needs to fire Spencer today. Not tomorrow. Not next week. He needs to be gone as soon as possible...I guess you could say I am cynical, but I didn't think I could be surprised by anything. But I am very surprised. Let’s get this chapter over quickly because it is hurtful, hurtful, hurtful. If this is extended for days or weeks or months, we are going to do great injury to this state."

The AJC is attempting to reach Spencer who did not respond Monday.

Here are two of the postings referenced by Fort: