A recently elected Florida school board member with a history of anti-Black and -LGBTQ Facebook posts won his race with the backing of top conservatives, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Moms for Liberty. Locals wonder how a person with a lengthy history of such posts got elected in the first place—and fear how he may wield power on the school board of the large, diverse district.
Coverage of the recent Moms for Liberty national summit suggested that the extremist parental group’s influence is on the wane and that controversial efforts to ban books and sex education will fade away. That may be true nationally, but for the 130,000 public school students in Jacksonville, Florida, Moms for Liberty’s influence appears to be on the rise.
Two representatives already on the local school board were previously supported by Moms for Liberty; in the August primary election, candidates backed by the group won two additional seats on the Duval County School Board.
When the two new representatives are sworn in this November, a majority of members of the sixth-largest school district in Florida will have the backing of Moms for Liberty.
The district’s newly selected Superintendent Christopher Bernier has also been endorsed by the group.
The outsize influence Moms for Liberty could theoretically exert over Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) has caused reactions ranging from alarm to disbelief. Many are specifically wondering how one newly elected board member won his race given his social media history. They say incoming school board member Tony Ricardo has a long track record of posting hateful content. On his campaign website, three of the 10 pledges are about protecting and expanding parental rights; three others are about opposing the “woke culture.” All these points mirror the goals of the far-right nonprofit the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as an anti-government extremist group, a label it rejects.
Ricardo’s Facebook profile and screenshots shared by concerned parents and teachers show that he has been posting disparaging content about LGBTQ people, racial justice movements, Muslims, and Democrats for nearly a decade. He’s also posted debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and COVID-19.
These posts were shared publicly on his Facebook page, which Ricardo uses prolifically. Posts there also show him urging people to vote for him for school board. Ricardo didn’t respond to the Daily Dot’s interview requests sent by emails, calls, and voicemails. He has not denied that it is his page.
In 2020, Ricardo reposted someone falsely saying that Vice President Kamala Harris is “not Black.” In 2021, he posted a meme paraphrasing President Joe Biden’s controversial quip that people “ain’t Black” if they didn’t plan to vote for him which read, “If you’re not rioting and looting, then you ain’t Democrat.” (As of that year, 45% of students in DCPS identified as Black.)
In the days following the Capitol riot, Ricardo made multiple posts downplaying the violent assault on democracy, falsely claiming that rioters were antifascists or Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters, and likening the riot to BLM protests. During this time period, he shared a post claiming companies who donated to BLM “hate America.”
According to a screenshot provided to the Daily Dot, in 2017, Ricardo posted, “Thug culture reducing hoodlums to animals.” On another occasion, he called LeBron James a “hypocrite thug.”
Ricardo has also made anti-Islam comments online. In 2016, he opined that Muslims can’t be good Americans and should be banned from immigrating to the United States. “[D]emocracy and Islam cannot co-exist!” he added.
Over the years, he has been prolifically anti-LGBTQ on Facebook. He shared transphobic conspiracy theories about former First Lady Michelle Obama, described being transgender as a mental disorder, and once wrote of LGBTQ people, “Pagans want to indoctrinate and seduce young children into a wicked lifestyle… because they cannot reproduce [on] their own.” Last October, he posted a meme describing the push for LGBTQ equality as a “slippery slope” that leads to children being forced to watch drag shows. Someone commented, “Pure Satinic believes, period [sic].” Ricardo liked the comment.
He’s also repeated right-wing theories that teachers are indoctrinating children into being LGBTQ.
Even after local outlets published articles exposing his social media history, Ricardo has continued posting content many may describe as extremist.
On Friday, he posted a video claiming right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk had disproven the “‘diversity is our strength’ lie.”
A Sept. 1 post shows an image of men dressed up as colonials carrying AR-15s with the caption, “They’re only weapons of war if you try to come and take them.”
Many locals were stunned that he won a seat on the school board given his social media history.
DCPS teacher and advocate Chris Guerrieri said Ricardo’s victory took the community by surprise, and estimated that “only a fifth of the people that possibly could have voted did vote.”
“I didn’t think there was any chance at all Tony Ricardo would win, a bit of a crackpot, he has that reputation,” he told the Daily Dot. “A lot of people thought one of the problems we have here is our primaries, which usually only have two candidates and they get very low turnout… I really think there were people who woke up the next morning [thinking], ‘What? I can’t believe it! There was no way Tony Ricardo could be elected.’”
His opponent, Nadine Ebri, taught at Duval’s school district for nine years and was recognized as a finalist for “Teacher of the Year” in 2021. She has an educational doctorate degree from the University of North Florida.
Ricardo, who has a bachelor’s degree in art education from Jacksonville University, taught art in DCPS for eight years in the 1980s and briefly worked as an elementary teacher at a Christian private school that has since closed. He retired from teaching in 1992 and today owns a sign-making company and sells artwork designs to other businesses.
Guerrieri said Ricardo was a “relative unknown.”
“He wasn’t a guy who went to school board meetings. He wasn’t a guy that wrote op-eds, the guy that talked a lot about education. He was just, you know, some guy,” he said. “He purposely missed like the Jacksonville Public Education Forum, where he would have gotten tough questions. I think he purposely avoided those places so he didn’t have to explain himself.”
Although his social media history was exposed by local outlet the Tributary before the election, DeSantis endorsed Ricardo. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ricardo was also supported by the local GOP, more than two dozen pastors and faith-based organizations, and other local conservative groups, including the Duval chapter of Moms for Liberty.
The chapter didn’t reply to the Daily Dot’s interview request.
DCPS parents are calling on the district and the school board to hold Ricardo accountable for what he posts on social media.
“Just as we expect our schools to be safe havens, free of bigotry and hate, our school board members’ actions and affiliations on and off duty should be held to that same standard,” said Mandy Rubin, parent of a fourth grader, at last week’s school board meeting.
“My son was at the lunch table and he told me how he felt hearing peers say disparaging things about LGBTQ folks,” she continued. “The point is that hate is taught, learned and mimicked and will be unabated unless we are diligent in calling it out and having a zero-tolerance policy, especially for those in elected positions of power like the school board.”
“I expect this board to firmly stand against all forms of bigotry, hate, and discrimination. I expect this board to publicly condemn this and to have higher standards for the office you are serving, just as you do for our educators,” wrote Katie Hathaway, a parent who spoke at the board meeting and sent emails to board members sharing Ricardo’s online speech.
DCPS’s board policy outlines rules and procedures that prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national or ethnic origin, and other protected classes. The policy applies to students, district employees, and board members. “If the complaint is against… [a] member of the school board, the complaint may be filed with the Office of General Counsel,” it states.
In response to an inquiry sent last week about whether Ricardo’s posts violate school policies, a DCPS spokesperson told the Daily Dot that the office is “pretty booked this week” and said it was “hoping that we will be able to respond sometime next week.” It did not respond before publication.
Teacher Guerrieri believes that the school district is following the state government’s lead and intentionally marginalizing its LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff. He pointed out that it removed Pride symbols from classrooms and diminished and even eliminated gay-straight alliances and other groups.
“They chose to protect their interests,” he said. “There were many opportunities to push back on Gov. DeSantis and to educate the people of Jacksonville. Time and time again, they either kick the can down the road or they choose not to participate.”
“Ricardo being on the school board is terrible and dreadful, it’s just an extension of the policies that DCPS has allowed to fester for the last few years.”
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