Editor's note: This updated version adds additional comment from the school board’s vice chair in the 19th and 20th paragraphs.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida's top Republican education official scolded Alachua County's mostly Democratic school board during an unexpected appearance Tuesday night, repeating his earlier accusations that its elected members have sought to intimidate conservative constituents.
The renewed rebuke from Tallahassee on the board's home turf further heightened tensions between the DeSantis administration and one of Florida's few remaining blue counties. Four of the school board's five elected members are Democrats.
The appearance by Florida’s commissioner of education, Anastasios Kamoutsas, was not on the meeting's agenda. Kamoutsas, a political appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, pointedly criticized a social media post by board member Tina Certain after the death of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
Certain, the board’s vice chair and who is Black, derided Kirk as an “uneducated white boy” and questioned why he was “glorified” after his death, and added that she was angry that federal and state officials were elevating him. She was last elected 61-39 in the 2022 primary.
“I’m outraged by the toxic culture,” Kamoutsas said. “The pattern of intimidation and the dereliction of duty that this board has repeatedly demonstrated.”
The commissioner ordered Certain to come to a Florida Board of Education meeting in November. He demanded she defend her role on the school board after what he called a “disturbing” comment.
Other prominent Republicans in Florida, including the county’s GOP chairman, Tim Marden, and Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., also have openly criticized Certain over what she wrote on Facebook. Kamoutsas urged her to resign.
Certain held her ground.
“Because my viewpoints don’t agree with Republicans, you can’t tell me I should step down from my seat,” Certain said in an interview with WUFT. She said that asking her to step down is “ludicrous.”
Alachua County, which includes the progressive college town of Gainesville that is home to the University of Florida, is one of only six of Florida's 67 counties that voted against President Trump in the 2024 elections. The others are Broward, Gadsden, Leon, Orange and Palm Beach counties. Republicans in Tallahassee have sought for years to make inroads here.
The school board meeting was packed, with some visitors forced to watch the livestream from outside the chamber. Public comment, which lasted nearly an hour and a half, was dominated by people talking about Certain’s post on social media.
An employee of the school district in nearby Union County, Peggy Vermont of Gainesville, urged state officials and Republicans to stop “acting like Hitler’s Gestapo over people’s thoughts and beliefs.” Vermont, a registered Democrat, said administrators need to focus on problems in schools, which she described as gun violence, low test scores and teacher pay.
Marden, who had encouraged fellow Republicans to attend the meeting, called Certain’s comment racist and said he believes state leaders have the authority to remove her.
“I will defend their right to say what they want to say,” Marden said in an interview with WUFT. “But that doesn’t free them of the responsibility of the consequences of what they say.”
Public commenters cited the First Amendment during Tuesday’s meeting. Many agreed that Certain’s freedom of speech did not disappear when she got elected to office.
“I was speaking in my personal capacity, commenting as myself, as a private citizen,” Certain said. “Calls for my removal are inappropriate and they raise serious constitutional concerns.”
Marden disagreed.
“It falls under the governor to remove somebody from office who is behaving unbecoming of a public official, and I think that’s clearly the case,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any kind of place in our community for that kind of racism.”
Even on unrelated posts, Certain’s Facebook commenters have called her racist for calling Kirk an “uneducated white boy.”
“I think it’s ironic they would call me racist in light of all the horrible things even our president has said,” the vice chair explained. “It is such a double standard.”
The flap over Certain’s social media post came just months after the board chair, Democrat Sarah Rockwell, received similar statewide backlash over a Facebook celebrating Hulk Hogan’s death in July.
“Oh, did Hulk die? I didn’t even know,” Rockwell wrote. “Good. One less MAGA in the world.”
Kamoutsas also had earlier criticized the school board over Rockwell’s post and how the board handled criticism of Rockwell during a meeting in July from a local resident, Jeremy Clepper. At the time, Certain ordered sheriff’s deputies to escort Clepper out of the public meeting but the board’s attorney advised against it. Clepper left on his own.
Clepper also complained Tuesday night about Certain’s social media post about Kirk.
“All Charlie Kirk ever did was create environments for open debate and discourse,” said Clepper, who wore a custom T-shirt that said ‘Rockwell, you’re fired!’ He said it was “rhetoric like this board has vomited for years that got that young man, father, and husband murdered.”
At a Florida Board of Education meeting on Aug. 20, Kamoutsas and fellow commissioners voted to monitor Alachua County and sanction their school board by cutting members’ salaries if the state deems they violated parents’ rights.
On Tuesday, Kamoutsas ordered Certain to visit the next Board of Education meeting, on Nov. 13. He told Certain to prepare to defend her job to the board and said she will be asked “some very difficult questions.”
“I’m determined to change the culture of intimidation and neglect of duty here in Alachua County,” Kamoutsas said.
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This is a breaking news story. Check back in case there are further developments. Contact WUFT News by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.