AN OUTSPOKEN Sonoma Valley Unified College District trustee resigned Thursday following incendiary feedback she made about supporters of President Donald Trump on her private Fb web page.
Space 2 trustee Celeste Winders posted on her marketing campaign for trustee Fb web page about her resignation.
“It is with sadness that I resign but I do so on my terms and no one else’s,” she wrote Thursday. “I believe in democracy and I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, an oath I take very seriously — especially right now when it hangs in great peril. I believe that democracy is worth fighting for, worth hanging on to tightly and I refuse to have my First Amendment rights lessened or weakened. I resign upholding that oath to the Constitution.”
A screenshot of a submit on Sonoma Valley Unified College District trustee Celeste Winders’ marketing campaign Fb web page Friday, March 14, 2025, wherein she publicizes her resignation. The submit and web page have been taken offline quickly after. (Screenshot through Celeste Winders for Sonoma Valley College Board – Space 2/Fb)
At subject is a submit she made Feb. 26 on her non-public Fb web page in response to proposed federal cuts to Medicaid. Winders stated such cuts would have an effect on her disabled youngster.
“F– every single person who voted for this administration all the way to hell,” she wrote. “May you burn the most fiery eternity and May everything you touch crumble and rot. This is why I will literally NEVER speak to some of my family members ever again. They are actually dead to me.”
On Feb. 28, Winders stated somebody noticed her submit and despatched screenshots of it to “Sonoma County MAGA trolls” who had used it to focus on her place as trustee. That screenshot was amplified in a Sonoma County Republican Celebration submit on Fb.
As of Friday morning, Winders was nonetheless listed with a photograph as a trustee on the district’s web site. The district additionally had not launched a public assertion about her resignation.
In her Feb. 28 submit, Winders stated that now could be the time to “stop being so damn polite.” “That polite approach is going to land you in a dictatorship and it could land me hurt or worse,” she wrote. “Because that is absolutely reality of where we are right now. This is not hyperbole people.”
Neighborhood weighs in
Reactions to Winders’ authentic submit have been each supportive and opposed.
On March 3, a group group posted a hyperlink to a Zoom name about Winders, saying “Parents can share their two cents with SVUSD Trustee Winders… She wished eternal hell on Trump supporters.”
Within the feedback below the submit, consumer Susan Hansen Chauncy stated she was “NOT a Trump or MAGAt supporter,” however that Winders’ assertion was not skilled.
“I believe strongly that we should all have the right to have our voices heard. But every teacher, principal and School Board member has a responsibility to act as a role model for our children. Social media is visible to everyone and as a parent, or grandparent, I believe that Ms. Winders must be held accountable for her words, no matter where they were posted,” wrote Chauncy.
Members of the general public queue up throughout a March 3, 2025, SVUSD board research session to remark of Trustee Celeste Winders’ Fb submit concerning President Trump supporters. (SonomaTV/YouTube)
Many commenters supported Winders, together with these with disabled kids.
Some customers stored their feedback transient.
“If there is a hell, Trump has a special place in it,” wrote Charlie Estudillo.
An Instagram submit from Feb. 26 by the account civil_rights707 denounced Winders’ feedback.
“I thought Democrats were supposed to be loving, and as elected officials, they’re supposed to be openminded on differing viewpoints,” stated the poster in a stream. However apparently, when you have any type of conservative values, or in case you voted for Trump, Miss Winders needs to your complete life to crumble and basically dying upon you and everlasting hell. If you happen to’re a Christian like myself, that’s extraordinarily insulting.”
