Pamela Ramsey Taylor, a nonprofit group director from Clay, West Virginia, who was suspended for making racist remarks about first lady Michelle Obama, will return to her position later this month, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
The newspaper reports that Taylor — who referred to Obama, 52, as an “ape in heels” on social media — is currently on suspension but is scheduled to return to work at the Clay County Development Corp. on Friday, December 23.
As previously reported, Taylor took to Facebook shortly after President-elect Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in this year’s election to express her elation over the ex–Celebrity Apprentice host and wife Melania Trump’s future move to the White House. In the process, she insulted the current FLOTUS.
“It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House,” Taylor wrote, according to NBC affiliate WSAZ. “I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels.”
In response to Taylor’s offensive Facebook post about Obama, thousands signed an online petition to have her terminated from her position. As of Tuesday, the petition has garnered more than 199,000 signatures.
After her post went viral, West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services state commissioner Robert Roswall warned that “any discrimination of staff or the customers [they] serve” could jeopardize funding of the nonprofit, which serves the elderly and is funded partially by state and federal money.
Taylor previously told WSAZ that she feels the public’s response to her remark is “a hate crime against me” and she also claimed that her children have received death threats. According to WSAZ, she issued an apology on Facebook.
