CPS Fires a Special Investigator Who Used Term ‘Nigartard’

Rita DeShannon, a special investigator with Texas Child Protective Services, was fired today after the agency was alerted to racially inflammatory remarks on her personal Twitter account. Under the account @TexasPeanut, DeShannon tweeted frequently during the past few weeks on George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, using the term “nigartards” and calling for white people to “arm themselves.”

Of course the gov will pursue civil rights charges to appease the nigartards. — Texas Peanut (@TexasPeanut) July 15, 2013

Every white American needs to own a gun and teach your family gun safety and how to shoot…your family is a target now…it will get worse — Texas Peanut (@TexasPeanut) July 15, 2013

Trayvon Martin, thug in training, came up against an American gun owner, jumped the wrong person that night, he would have died young anyway — Texas Peanut (@TexasPeanut) July 15, 2013

DeShannon has worked for CPS since 2003, first as a foster care worker, then as an investigative caseworker and finally as an Ellis County-based special investigator since 2010, according to the agency. According to her LinkedIn profile, DeShannon is also a law-enforcement officer, who worked as a detective in the Monroe, Louisiana, Police Department. She also owns a company, AAA Texas Process Service, that serves court papers for the Texas Supreme Court, according to public records.

Until she changed it yesterday, her Twitter profile identified her as a member of the “Oathkeepers,” a far-right organization largely comprised of cops and military personnel who promise to disobey orders they consider unconstitutional. DeShannon didn’t respond to an email from the Observer seeking comment.

The Observer contacted CPS on Tuesday about DeShannon’s Twitter account. Patrick Crimmins, a spokesperson for the Department of Family and Protective Services, said the agency wasn’t aware of DeShannon’s inflammatory racial views or her Twitter account. On Wednesday morning, the agency dismissed her. In a letter recommending her dismissal, CPS administrators wrote that her “comments were inappropriate and inflammatory” and “violated her ethical responsibilities to the children and families we serve.” In one tweet on July 15th, DeShannon complains, “I’m really f#cking tired of being politically correct for nothing after all these years!” Her most recent tweet, from two days ago: “I’m not racist..I’ll kill any color of person who tries to kill me first!”