Social media posts believed to be from parent who sought book ban praised Proud Boys, shared antisemitic conspiracy theory
Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on May 25, 2023
(MIAMI) — The parent whose complaint led to the transfer of Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” to the middle school section of a Miami-Dade school made social media posts praising the far-right Proud Boys and shared elements of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, an ABC News review of a profile appearing to belong to the parent showed.
Records provided to ABC News by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a group tracking restrictions on books in the state’s public education system, show the complaint was made by the parent on March 29. In April, staff from the Bob Graham Education Center and a representative from a nearby school met to review the complaint by the parent with two students at the K-8 school.
The Florida Freedom to Read Project obtained the documents through a public records request.
The parent requested that five books, including Gorman’s The Hill We Climb, be removed, citing concerns over “indoctrination” and “critical race theory.” According to the records, the committee decided to move four of the five books, previously accessible to all students at the school, to a section for middle schoolers.
The complaints included the name, address and telephone number for the parent. Those details led ABC News to a social media profile appearing to belong to the parent.
That profile included a post from Aug. 21, 2021, praising the far-right Proud Boys and featuring a reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Another post from March 31, which appears to have been deleted, included a summary of the antisemitic conspiracy theory “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
After the alleged profile’s existence was first publicized by online activist groups, a post appeared on the profile on May 24 apologizing for sharing the antisemitic conspiracy theory.
“I would like to apologize to the Jewish community for a post that I reposted earlier from someone else. I only read the word communism and went ahead to repost it thinking it was related to that,” the post read in part.
The owner of the profile, who ABC News is not naming at this time, did not respond to requests for comment.
Reached by telephone, the Bob Graham Education Center declined to comment.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools did not return a request for comment.
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