{"id":256715,"date":"2025-09-26T18:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T18:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256715\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T18:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T18:28:10","slug":"well-known-local-activist-reassigned-from-position-at-douglas-anderson-following-controversial-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256715\/","title":{"rendered":"Well-known local activist reassigned from position at Douglas Anderson following controversial social media posts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A prominent local activist has been reassigned from her position as an adjunct teacher at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, the district confirmed to News4JAX on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hope McMath, a part-time high school art teacher at DA, recently shared posts on her Facebook page that included controversial comments. One referred to Jacksonville City Councilman Rory Diamond as a \u201cgrand wizard,\u201d a reference to leaders of the Ku Klux Klan. The district said it is investigating. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">McMath accused Diamond of racism <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/08\/22\/jacksonville-finance-committee-approves-rory-diamonds-big-beautiful-budget-amendments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/08\/22\/jacksonville-finance-committee-approves-rory-diamonds-big-beautiful-budget-amendments\/\">because of amendments he proposed to the city\u2019s budget<\/a> that would have banned any future city funding for:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\">\n<p>Services for undocumented immigrants<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\">\n<p>DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programs<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\">\n<p>Abortion-related care<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Those items weren\u2019t part of this year\u2019s budget, but Diamond said he wanted to ensure they wouldn\u2019t be added in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Well-known Jacksonville activist Hope McMath was reassigned from her position at Douglas Anderson pending an investigation into social medias posts. (WJXT)Well-known Jacksonville activist Hope McMath was reassigned from her position at Douglas Anderson pending an investigation into social medias posts. (WJXT)<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">The amendments <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/politics\/2025\/09\/24\/one-vote-changed-everything-jacksonville-city-council-passes-2b-budget-after-13-hour-deadlock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/politics\/2025\/09\/24\/one-vote-changed-everything-jacksonville-city-council-passes-2b-budget-after-13-hour-deadlock\/\">were defeated after a lengthy debate that lasted into the early morning hours Wednesday.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">Earlier this month in a Facebook post, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/10\/four-councilmembers-walk-out-of-meeting-as-rory-diamonds-big-beautiful-budget-amendments-is-discussed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/10\/four-councilmembers-walk-out-of-meeting-as-rory-diamonds-big-beautiful-budget-amendments-is-discussed\/\">McMath applauded four City Council members who walked out<\/a> during the discussion of Diamond\u2019s amendments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cBecause if you aren\u2019t standing up against this s***** treatment of our neighbors then get out of the way,\u201d McMath wrote. \u201cWe are ALL harmed by this grandstanding and misuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">More recently, McMath warned about what she called attacks on free speech after Florida\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/22\/florida-launches-new-portal-to-anonymously-report-violent-extremism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/22\/florida-launches-new-portal-to-anonymously-report-violent-extremism\/\">launch of an online portal to \u201cCombat Violent Extremism.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In the wake of right-wing political figure Charlie Kirk\u2019s death, educators have come under particular scrutiny for their online comments. Some apparently joking about the conservative activist\u2019s death faced backlash and firings for what was deemed \u201chate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">A Clay County teacher at Ridgeview Elementary School, shortly after Kirk\u2019s fatal shooting on Sept. 10 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/topic\/Charlie_Kirk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/topic\/Charlie_Kirk\/\">over a social media post that referenced Kirk\u2019s death<\/a>, the district said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Duval County Public Schools said McMath \u201chas been temporarily reassigned while the district conducts an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">A district spokesperson did not provide details but shared a link to the School Board policy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duvalschools.org\/o\/dcps\/page\/chapter-6-human-resource-services\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.duvalschools.org\/o\/dcps\/page\/chapter-6-human-resource-services\">that covers employees\u2019 use of social media.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">McMath, a Northeast Florida cultural leader, educator and artist, was vocal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2023\/06\/16\/take-em-down-jax-calls-for-new-city-administration-to-move-forward-with-removal-of-confederate-monuments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2023\/06\/16\/take-em-down-jax-calls-for-new-city-administration-to-move-forward-with-removal-of-confederate-monuments\/\">in the fight over Confederate monuments in Jacksonville<\/a> and her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/video\/morning-show\/2022\/09\/02\/yellow-house-art-is-celebrating-5-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/video\/morning-show\/2022\/09\/02\/yellow-house-art-is-celebrating-5-years\/\">Yellow House Art Gallery<\/a> offers a space for art that is socially conscious.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A prominent local activist has been reassigned from her position as an adjunct teacher at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,75252,407,3188,723,134672,7310,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-256715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-douglas-anderson-school-of-the-arts","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-hope-mcmath","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}