After Libs of TikTok callout, Kentucky lawmakers want public school equity officer gone

Republican lawmakers who represent portions of the Louisville metro area are calling on the county public school system's chief equity officer to resign immediately over a social media post, just hours after it was highlighted by a prominent right-wing account.

Jefferson County Public Schools Chief Equity Officer John Marshall on Monday posted to X that he'd recently told Black students and professionals, "regardless of the rooms, meetings, classes you're in, know the majority of whites could care less about you and have no issues harming you and yours."

Fourteen Kentucky Republicans — a dozen current lawmakers and two incoming freshman legislators — on Wednesday called it an "outrageously inflammatory public statement for anyone in a civilized society to make, but such speech is protected by the First Amendment — for a private citizen."

Their demand for Marshall's ouster came four hours after an account on X, Libs of TikTok, posted about his comments.

"He gets paid nearly $200K of your tax dollars per year to say stuff like this," the account wrote.

Libs of TikTok has more than 3.7 million followers on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. Bomb threats and other forms of targeted harassment have at times followed posts on the account, run by a woman named Chaya Raichik . Libs of TikTok played a part in the ousting of a Bellarmine employee earlier this year, who posted about the attempted assassination of Trump.

As an "officer of the government, speaking in an official capacity at taxpayer expense, such reckless speech inciting hatred based on skin color should be ground for immediate termination," the elected officials said in their statement.

"In the current heated political climate of America, it is absolutely unacceptable for a senior JCPS leader to stoke the fires of hatred and division rather than set an example of bringing students together in peace," they continued.

If Marshall did not willingly resign, they threatened to "call upon the JCPS Board and/or superintendent to terminate his employment."

Marshall's post offered that advice after Black students and professionals who had called him to ask, "What's a strategy moving forward," he wrote in his post, seemingly referencing the election of former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has a long history of making racist remarks . In his political life, it began with the conspiratorial "birther" movement, in which he repeatedly accused former President Barack Obama, the first Black president, of not being born in this country. Among the more notable examples this campaign cycle was in July, when he clashed with a room full of Black journalists during a campaign appearance in which he questioned Harris' racial identity, saying she " became a Black person " only recently.

At least one of the lawmakers calling on Marshall to resign cited his comments as an adverse symptom of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which the Kentucky General Assembly tried to dismantle at state colleges and universities earlier this year. That bill died on the cutting room floor the final night of session and never became law.

"He needs to go," Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, posted to X earlier on Wednesday. "This is exactly why DEI needs to end."

Tichenor later posted , "it's clear by (Marshall's) many statements he does not support the entirety of the students he serves," accusing him of using "unacceptable divisive rhetoric."

When asked about Republicans' demand for action and whether the school district would be pursuing any, JCPS spokesperson Carolyn Callahan said on Wednesday, "Dr. Marshall's social media post was not made on behalf of his employer."

Here are the lawmakers who called on Marshall to resign: