C.O. Diversity Project calls for Breese-Iverson to resign over offensive photo of son; lawmaker and teen issue apologies

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Central Oregon Diversity Project has called for the resignation of state Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, the Oregon House minority leader, after a photo was posted on social media of her son posing by a WWII German plane on display in Madras and giving an apparent Nazi salute.

The Diversity Project said in a Saturday Facebook post that it was demanding Breese-Iverson's immediate resignation over the photo that surfaced online. The group also claimed Crook County school officials “avoided handing down discipline” and that they “have reason to believe that the student wasn’t disciplined because of his mother and ‘who’ she is.”

The lawmaker posted a response on her Facebook page, offering her apology “to anyone impacted by this image” and criticizing her son’s “extremely poor judgment.” She said she and her husband had contacted school officials “about enforcing adequate consequences for his actions, both at school and at home.”

Breese-Iverson accompanied her statement with a photo of her son’s handwritten apology, in which he said posing for a photo that a friend took and posted online “was a dumb mistake. I really get that now. Doing something bad in the moment without thinking can cause harm.”