Petition seeks removal of Cheryl Bean from school board after offensive posts
More than 1,100 people have signed a petition seeking the resignation of a Texas House candidate as the chair of a fine arts charter school after she posted a racially coded meme last week.
On July 1, Republican Cheryl Bean posted on Facebook an AI-generated illustration of WNBA player Sophie Cunningham on a boat with her Indiana Fever teammates, posing similarly to the “Washington Crossing the Delaware” painting. In the image, Cunningham is pointing forward, referencing a June 22 game when she pointed dramatically at Phoenix Mercury player DeWanna Bonner after a physical altercation with Cunningham’s teammate Caitlin Clark.
Bean is running for House District 94 and is the board chair of the Texas Center for Arts and Academics, which governs two public charter schools, one in Fort Worth.
By 11:30 a.m. July 1 the post was deleted. Bean did not respond to questions from the Star Telegram.
The petition on change.org was started on July 5. The petition cites a pattern of offensive posts from Bean.
“When the individual serving as Board Chair publicly shares or amplifies content that many members of the community reasonably perceive as discriminatory or demeaning toward protected groups, confidence in the Board’s ability to provide fair, inclusive, and ethical leadership is compromised,” the petition said.
It continued: ”For these reasons, we respectfully call upon Cheryl Bean to resign as Chair of the Texas Center for Arts + Academics Board of Directors and from the Board entirely. If she chooses not to resign, we call upon the TCAA Board of Directors to take appropriate action to remove her from her position as Chair and from the Board entirely, and to ensure its leadership reflects the standards of respect, accountability, integrity, and inclusion expected by the students, families, educators, and community it serves.”
The petition states it is not only just about a single image, but a pattern of social media activity that perpetuates “racial stereotypes,”
The petition shows multiple posts from Bean across Facebook, X and Instagram.
One shows a red plane with “Mandami” and a hammer and sickle on its side flying toward what appears to be the World Trade Center. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani identifies as Muslim and is a democratic socialist.
In another, Bean commented “Too Funny” in response to a meme showing Melania Trump holding a sign saying “Jasmine Crockett I speak five languages, while you struggle with English.”
In a message sent to parents by Texas Center for Arts and Academics Superintendent Anika Perkins included the following statement attributed to Bean: “The post of the basketball team crossing the Delaware river has been removed. The original intent was to show female athletes standing strong against unsportsmanlike conduct in a humorous way … nothing more. My team and I did not see the floaties in the picture and would never have posted it if we had. I believe racism in any form has no place in our society and regret our unintentional oversight.”
This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 3:36 PM.
