INDIANAPOLIS — The National FFA removed one of its officers over a series of social media posts that violated the code of conduct for FFA members and national officers.
Lyle Logemann, the western region vice president and member of the National FFA’s 2019-2020 officer team, was removed as a national officer, the National FFA announced on June 4.
Logemann made a series of social media posts, including a May 31, 2020, response to an Instagram post, that drew criticism from others on social media.
Logemann issued an apology on his private Instagram account on June 3.
“On the night of May 31st, 2020, I replied to an individual’s Instagram post with hurtful comments directed towards that individual. Realizing the mistake, I deleted the comment. First let me say that the views in that comment do not reflect the views of the National FFA Organization. Second, I regret posting those comments. What I shared was inappropriate and wrong on several accounts,” Logemann wrote in his apology posted on Instagram.
The National FFA organization did not reference the May 31 post, but said the organization was made aware of “inappropriate, insensitive” posts that Logemann made prior to being elected as a National FFA officer.
“We were presented with information concerning social media posts that were made by our western region vice president, Lyle Logemann, prior to his service as a national officer. We have confirmed that Lyle made these posts, and he admits were at the very least inappropriate, insensitive and reflected views that are not in keeping with the ideals of the National FFA Organization,” a statement, posted on the National FFA’s Facebook page, said.
Due to the “quasi employment status” of its national officers with the organization, the National FFA said the matter was handled as a human resources and personnel matter. Due to the public nature of the comments, the actions regarding Logemann were released to the public.
Logemann was removed as a National FFA officer and was offered counseling and sensitivity training. The National FFA officer team will continue for the remainder of the 2019-2020 term with five national officers.
“We are saddened for all involved that we have had to address this situation at all and to have had to do so in such a public forum,” the statement from National FFA said.
The statement said that all national officer candidates will be subject to background checks, including “vetting of their social media activities by external professional firms.”
“We have mistakenly relied on the traditional process of nominating, questioning and selecting national officers to discover this type of information. However, we can no longer rely on an ad hoc process that does not discover potentially egregious information,” the statement said.
National FFA officials said they will be providing additional guidance to state FFA associations “to help them present candidates to us for consideration that are qualified for the offices they seek.”
Logemann is an alumni of the Elida Municipal Schools FFA in Elida, New Mexico. He is an agricultural education major at Eastern New Mexico University.