Duval School Board member Tony Ricardo sits on the dais during a break in public comment at the Nov. 9, 2026, School Board meeting. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on November 10, 2026 at 4:07 pm
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More than 100 people came out to address the Duval School Board Monday — the vast majority of them drawn to the school district HQ because of a recent Islamophobic Facebook post by school board member Tony Ricardo.
Ricardo has not spoken publicly about his post and did not respond to commenters about the post at the meeting.
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Commenters were split between supporting Ricardo’s post, saying it was an example of speech protected by the First Amendment, and criticizing his judgement for posting inflammatory comments about a major world religion whose adherents include people he was elected to represent, as well as teachers and students in his district.
Ricardo shared the post calling Islam an “invasive cult” on his personal Facebook page this month, and it was then circulated widely on social media by people who don’t follow him. Elected officials and community leaders across Jacksonville have called for him to apologize — and several have called for him to resign, including former state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, who just lost her bid to represent Florida in U.S. Senate. On the other hand, Duval GOP Chair Charles Barr defended Ricardo, telling Action News Jax, “I’ve known Tony for a long time. It doesn’t matter to him what the students’ religion is. He’s there for the students to help them learn education. That’s it.”
At Monday’s board meeting, the first since he shared the post a week ago, the commenters included a sixth-grade student who said she was a practicing Muslim. She told Ricardo students would “face consequences” for making the kind of “hateful comments” Ricardo posted.
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“Why should an elected official be held to a lower standard than an 11-year-old?” she asked the board. “As a Muslim child, I should never have to wonder whether the people making decisions about my education respect my faith or see me as less than others.”
Outside influence
A handful of Monday’s commenters who spoke in defense of Ricardo were part of a coordinated show of support by far-right influencers who don’t live in North Florida. An image that circulated on social media ahead of the meeting advertised the chance to “stand up for Christian school board member Tony Ricardo, who is under attack by political Islam.”
The speakers included pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang, who stood at the lectern wearing a bulletproof vest and an ankle monitor. His immediately incendiary anti-Muslim comments prompted dozens of people in the packed auditorium to stand and yell for him to be quieted, calling Lang’s comments “hate speech.”
Board policy stipulates that “speakers will avoid the use of profane or vulgar language” but does not define those terms.
Board Chair Charlotte Joyce did not address Lang directly, but the crowd became so raucous that his speech was drowned out before his time expired. Joyce yelled repeatedly from the dais for the auditorium to be cleared. Lang objected to not receiving his entire minute to speak, then said, “God bless you, Tony, we stand with you. The white men and the Christians stand with you.”
School Board police emptied the room and escorted Lang to his car as commenters in the audience continued to shout at each other and at him.
After a 20-minute recess, the meeting resumed. In an effort to minimize further disruptions, the board kept all attendees in a waiting room. As each speaker’s turn neared, they were allowed into the main room, then directed back to the waiting room after making their public comment. When the public comment portion of the meeting concluded, all attendees were allowed back into the auditorium.
Board reaction
Meeting protocol dictates that board members don’t directly respond to public comment. But, each member has an opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting. Most of the seven members used that time to address the evening’s chaotic events.
Ricardo did not.
District 5 representative Reggie Blount stopped short of defending or criticizing Ricardo, but said he was “really upset” about what he perceived as bias in who the community chooses to advocate for, calling it “intra-ethnic political racism.”
“We cannot go around just pulling certain people out that we’re going to advocate for, and the other ones, they just have to take it for the team,” Blount said.
Board member Melody Bolduc said she wanted to “amplify” the comments of people like a teacher friend who “leads with kindness, and is a most excellent Muslim woman.”
“My Christian faith calls me to love my neighbor, whether or not we agree,” Bolduc said. “We can stand firmly in our convictions without abandoning our kindness. What I saw here tonight wasn’t a good display of our community.”
District 4 rep Darryl Willie, who is term-limited and spent his last-ever School Board meeting listening to the public comment, offered an apology to “our Muslim families, anybody who’s in the room, anybody who witnessed, was a part of that.”
Willie said board members “have to understand” the influence they have.
“When we say things from a position of power, that power actually creates things. And tonight, it created the reaction that we had,” he said.
“Tonight, I’ll leave us with this statement right here for everybody: Our kids are watching.”
