Education

Man Who Gave Nazi Salute at Birmingham Schools Meeting Loses Tennis Job

August 23, 2021, 4:11 PM

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Paul Marcum (Photo: The Sports Club of West Bloomfield)

A man accused of flashing a Nazi salute and chanting “Heil Hitler” at a Birmingham Board of Education meeting last week has lost his tennis instructor job at a West Bloomfield health and fitness club, Metro Times reports.

Paul Marcum worked at the Sports Club every fall but won't be returning, the owner tells Metro Times. Marcum's bio was taken off the company's site and an employee confirmed to Deadline Detroit that he no longer works there.

Marcum flashed the salute during a heated debate Aug. 17 at Groves High School over mandatory masks in the classroom. Parents without masks stepped up to the podium to voice their objections to the masks, while masked parents told board members they favored them.

The disturbing incident prompted district trustees to tell parents via email the next day: "Last evening at our regular Board of Education meeting, a member of the audience gestured and uttered a Nazi salute after an individual made public comment."

The man made the gesture toward Suzanne Busdiecker, who is Jewish and two African-American women, Deadline Detroit reported. They attended to applaud the masking rule and two of them had just finished addressing the board. Marcum was removed by security.

"It's a hate crime and it happened on school property," Busdiecker, a mother of a student entering middle school after a year of virtual learning, told Deadline Detroit. "I'm not taking it lightly."

Marcum owns Paul Marcum’s Tennis Service and lives in Bloomfield Hills, Metro Times reports. His club bio, retrieved from cache memory, says he has been a "presenter at Midwest tennis conferences" who coached four NCAA All-American players while working as head coach at Ferris State University for four years. He was a varsity tennis star there in the early 1990s.

West Bloomfield, where the Sports Club is located, has one of Metro Detroit's largest Jewish populations. 


Read more:  Metro Times


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