Here’s your chance to vote! Take our poll: Should Frontus have fired staffer?

March 6, 2020 Paula Katinas

ebrooklyn Media/Photo by Paula Katinas

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BOROUGHWIDE — Don’t wait until the presidential election in November. Vote today!

The Brooklyn Reporter has put a poll on Facebook asking readers to vote on whether Assemblymember Mathylde Frontus did the right thing by firing a staff member who shared an anti-Asian message on Facebook urging shoppers to avoid Chinese businesses during the coronavirus epidemic.

Marilyn Franks, who worked as a receptionist in Frontus’ Coney Island district office, was canned after she shared a Facebook message reading “We urge citizens to stay away from Chinese supermarkets, shops, fast food outlets, Restaurant (sic) and Business.”

The message goes on to say, “Many of the owners went back to China to celebrate the Chinese New Year celebrations. They are returning and some are bringing along the coronavirus. Rather be safe than sorry.”

The coronavirus epidemic began in Wuhan, China. To date, 100,000 people in 83 countries have been diagnosed with the potentially deadly virus and more than 3,400 have died.

Frontus, a Democrat who represents Coney Island and parts of Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge, quickly fired Franks and condemned the posting.

But did Frontus do the right thing by firing Franks? We want to hear from you.

Our poll, which will be up for six days, has already generated a lot of buzz.

https://www.facebook.com/185626008123096/posts/3108951915790476/

As of Friday, 65 percent of the respondents voted yes, that Franks deserved to lose her job. Thirty-five percent disagreed and thought her job should have been spared.

One reader, Amy Lynn, commented that she found the controversial post horrible. “The person who posted it should be fired,” she wrote.

To vote in the poll, click here.