Alvord School Board Member, 21, In Hot Water Over Racist Comments On Facebook

CORONA  (CBSLA.com)   —   A member of the Alvord school board is under fire after allegedly posting racist comments on Facebook.

Joseph Barragan, 21,  insists his account was hacked.

There has been a call from parents and community members for Barragan to resign. The Alvord Unified School District met Thursday evening to discuss the matter.

KCAL9's Crystal Cruz attended the meeting where she said many people weren't buying Barragan's story of being hacked.

The controversial comments lashed out at blacks, Muslims and immigrants. Some of the posts said, in part "build a wall like Israel has to keep Muslims out" and "Then we wonder why life was better when we had slaves."

Barragan  joined the board in December.

"If  you can not represent their beliefs, do the honorable thing and resign," said one woman.

"It's completely and utterly selfish of him to not resign when the people want him to," said Kaliah Rhoden, a constituent.

"As some of my supporters here tonight know, my social media accounts were hacked and I have reported this along with some death threats," Barragan told the assembled crowd.

Barragan insists he's the victim of fake news and fake post generators.

" I will not resign. Like I said, there's no need to resign," he said to Cruz. "Thank you."

The board reminded everyone, that Berragan was elected and they don't have the power to remove him.

"I think the parents have a lot of power at this point and I would encourage them to contact the register of voters if they need any more information," Superintendent Siid Salazar said.

Barragan also told Cruz that he's hired his own private investigator.

The Riverside Police Department is investigating Barragan's claims that his Facebook account was hacked

The school district released a statement that reads, in part:

"The Alvord Unified School District officially condemns the inflammatory and offensive individual personal comments made by Mr. Barragan through his public use of social media. At the same time, we recognize Mr. Barragan's sacred and protected right to freely speak his mind as a private citizen."