North Allegheny Parents Address School Board With Concerns Over INPAX Owner's Social Media Posts

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MCCANDLESS TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- Some parents in the North Allegheny School District want the school board to terminate a contract with a security company.

On Wednesday night, dozens of parents and community members addressed the board, including the owner of the company in hot water.

"His multiple Islamaphobic and homophobic Facebook posts, which I think most of us have seen, completely disqualify him from training North Allegheny staff, especially on the topic of student profiling," said Ruth Quint, resident.

Quint spoke before the board, along with several dozen more, to address concerns over past Facebook posts made by Sam Rosenberg.

Rosenberg is the founder and CEO of INPAX Academy of Personal Protection. The district hired his security company four years ago to train teachers and staff what to do in the case of an active shooter.

A parent discovered the posts when researching Rosenberg's background. She found his publicly viewable Facebook page and found posts many described as homophobic and Anti-Muslim.

The posts were found on both his personal Facebook page and the official INPAX Facebook page.

"That is not who I am, that is not what we stand for and my whole philosophy is trying to empower others and I would be more than happy to have a conversation with you or to show you some training and show you exactly how we approach that," said Sam Rosenberg, INPAX Founder and CEO.

Rosenberg sat in the back of the room Wednesday night and listened to the parents' concerns before addressing the room.

KDKA News talked to him after the meeting ended. The board did not vote on the issue of his contract.

"There's no excuse I feel very heartfelt in saying that I don't want anyone offended by anything that is associated with me," said Rosenberg. "Immediate corrective action will be taken and will continue to be taken."

Upon discovery of the posts many months ago, the North Allegheny School District cancelled an active-shooter training session for parents, but no future action was taken.

Rosenberg said the posts are from several years ago and reflect his "humor as a Marine."

"I accept his apology, but I still think he's an inappropriate partner for the district," said Katie Leslie, the parent who first discovered the posts.

Although most parents agreed that he was not a good fit for continued employment, some community members did come out to show support.

"The man's a decorated Marine, he was a body guard for a world leader," said Cindy Welterman. "Is he supposed to post Teletubbies or something? What did they expect him to post? And like I said it was his personal Facebook page.

Wasi Mohamed attended Wednesday night's meeting at the request of a handful of parents. He serves as the executive director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh. He found the posts disturbing.

"Specifically the one that gets me is that I'm the director of the Islamic center in Pittsburgh and that is in one of the posts that was shared we're called a terrorist organization and that very dangerous."

Rosenberg deleted the posts and has since increased security on his personal Facebook page so his posts are no longer viewable to Facebook users that are not his "friends" on the social media site.

The school board did not take a vote on the issue Wednesday night.