Kane County Reporter

Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute said that “no one worse” could replace Traci O’Neal Ellis, who resigned from the Elgin Area School District U-46 board on April 23, seven months after likening the America flag to toilet paper.

“This is very, very good news for the community,” Higgins said.

Ellis said she received death threats after posting her comments about the flag on her Facebook page in September.

Traci O’Neal Ellis | Facebook

On April 23, she apologized to fellow board members for the “distraction," but not for the post.

"The intentionally stoked ensuing uproar caused quite a distraction to this district and to my life," the Daily Herald quoted her as saying. "There is no doubt that the vicious campaign of hate, and the racist and white supremacist vitriol that followed was intended to destroy me. But, as it turns out, it worked for my good. Flaggate has created numerous opportunities for me to take my social justice activism to the national level."

In the past, Ellis’ charged remarks have received little media attention. Higgins said that multiple times Ellis called the 2016 Republican National Convention the “Klanvention.” She also referred to it that way in a Facebook post.

“I didn’t see one word written about it,” Higgins said. “I can’t understand how this got no attention especially with probably half the people in the district being Republican.”

Board member Jeannette Ward clashed with Ellis on the flag comments, the phase-in of co-ed bathrooms and lockers rooms in the district, and other issues. Ward said that Ellis disliked her so much that she would not allow her (Ward) to even hold the door open for her.

“She likes to equate disagreement with racism,” Ward said.

In 2015, the Edgar County Watchdogs recorded  Ellis laughing about the fact that the taxpayers paid for catering some of her meals.

And in March of this year, the Kane County Reporter reported that the campaign committee to Re-Elect Traci O'Neal Ellis owes a $2,200 fine imposed on March 1, 2016 by the Illinois State Board of Elections.

In her Monday remarks, Ellis said that the publicity surrounding her flag comments opened opportunities for her social justice mission on a national level.

“The community should be glad she’s gone,” Higgins said. “But now we might have someone else to worry about on the national level pushing what is just another name for racist training.”

By law, the six remaining members of the school board have 45 days to find a replacement.