A group of California Democratic Party activists that campaigned on holding leaders accountable for their positions on sexual violence are calling on one of their own to resign over remarks that cast doubt on his commitment to the cause.

The backlash against Palo Alto middle school teacher Greer Stone—one of the party’s 14 elected delegates in Assembly District 24—stems from the way he defended his pedophile half-brother, Michael Airo, at a Feb. 21 sentencing hearing.

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Stanford law professor Michele Dauber—an appointed delegate who endorsed and organized the AD 24 slate in part to reform a party roiled by a sexual assault scandal that toppled ex-Chairman Eric Bauman—condemned Stone’s speech for its complete “lack of concern for the victim.” She said his words in court that day should preclude him from taking part in the California Democratic Party convention, where delegates from throughout the state gather in San Francisco this weekend to elect Bauman’s successor.

“It is understandable that he would ask for mercy for his relative,” Dauber said, “but he needed to do that in a way that acknowledged the devastation that Airo caused to his victim and to our public schools and our whole community in Palo Alto. It is disqualifying for a public school teacher, let alone a public official to say that a child molesting teacher is a ‘good person’ and to praise his work with children.”