Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hand-picked college board president resigned Thursday after coming underneath fireplace from critics, together with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the mayor, for social media posts deemed anti-Semitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial.
“Today I requested the President of the Chicago School Board of Education (BOE), the Rev. Mitchell Johnson, for his resignation, and he has resigned, efficient instantly,” stated the mayor, who just isn’t associated to the board president scholastic appointed by him, the Reverend Mitchell Ikenna Johnson. stated in an announcement.
“Reverend Mitchell Johnson’s statements weren’t solely hurtful but in addition deeply disturbing. I wish to be clear: anti-Semitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial statements are unacceptable,” the mayor stated.
The mayor’s announcement Thursday afternoon happened two hours after Pritzker known as on Reverend Johnson to resign from his submit. Pritzker was brazenly crucial this week of the way in which metropolis officers vetted Johnson for faculties work in mild of Facebook posts, which surfaced after he took his job.
The way forward for the Board of Education stays unsure. But with the varsity board’s first official assembly Friday, an election simply days away and a controversial mortgage up for grabs that can tremendously have an effect on the district, the governor intervened at an important second.
“Any particular person charged with managing the Chicago Public School Board should set an instance of targeted, inclusive and constant management,” Pritzker stated in an announcement Thursday. “The views expressed within the present president’s present posts – anti-Semitism, misogyny, fringe conspiracy theories – clearly don’t meet this commonplace.”
Rev. Johnson was appointed by the mayor to the varsity board’s high management function in any case seven earlier members resigned. Some state legislators and metropolis council members questioned that call and known as for Reverend Johnson’s resignation attributable to quite a few anti-Israel posts he revealed, first reported by the publication Jewish Insider.
After the Hamas assault on October 7, 2023, Reverend Johnson started posting concerning the warfare between Israel and Hamas on Facebook. Rev. Johnson’s Facebook posts about Israel continued into the spring.
“My Jewish colleagues appear drunk on Israeli energy and can stay to see their fee,” he wrote in a Dec. 19 submit.
“German Nazi ideology has been adopted by Zionist Jews,” he wrote in one other, dated February 20.
The mayor defended his analysis means of Rev. Johnson in an interview with the Tribune on Thursday, saying the varsity board president went by way of “the identical analysis course of that each different employees went by way of.” He stated “a very powerful factor” was asking Rev. Johnson to resign.
“What Reverend Johnson does sooner or later to atone or make amends for his statements is a private journey that he should undertake and I’ll help him alongside that non-public journey. But this won’t upset my view of our public training system,” stated Mayor Johnson.
When requested who will change Rev. Johnson, he stated, “We’re actually not wanting expertise on this metropolis.”
But he supplied no info on when he’ll appoint a brand new college board president.
Pritzker’s name for Reverend Johnson’s resignation illustrates one other instance of stress between the governor and mayor who’ve been at odds over points together with how the state ought to fund the town’s public college system and the migrant disaster .
On Wednesday, even aldermen who’ve traditionally been aligned with the mayor expressed their considerations about Rev. Johnson’s assignments and management. They wrote a letter, signed by 40 out of fifty members, calling for the quick resignation of the varsity board president.
“This state of affairs is a failure of management and judgment on the a part of Mayor Johnson and his government staff,” the letter reads. “Earlier this month, Mayor Johnson advised reporters that his appointees can be completely vetted earlier than being sworn in. It is evident that this didn’t happen,” the letter reads.
Five years in the past, Rev. Johnson attended a number of occasions on the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in keeping with Alison Pure-Slovin, the group’s Midwest regional director. Chicago aldermen and different authorities leaders took a “robust, constructive stand towards bigotry and for tolerance” over the course of the week, as information of the posts slowly emerged on-line, he stated.
“His resignation is a step in the direction of duty. The governor’s management has been extraordinary. He has not been silent about this,” Pure-Slovin stated.
In their separate statements Thursday, neither Pritzker nor Mayor Johnson cited particular Facebook posts by Reverend Johnson. But anti-Israel posts apart, Reverend Johnson on May 27 on Facebook appeared to point his settlement with a misogynistic remark posted to his account.
The submit quotes Johnson saying “Sad information” in reference to a picture that reads: “When a person earns cash, he desires of giving one of the best to his household and his spouse. But when a girl earns cash she feels she does not want her man and his household.”
And a Jan. 11 Facebook submit quoted Johnson as saying, “Facts!!!” in reference to a conspiracy concept concerning the September 11, 2001 terrorist assaults in New York City and Washington, D.C., that “greater than 3,000 EXPERTS AGREE: 9/11 was actually an inside job.”
Rev. Johnson didn’t reply to requests for remark Thursday on his resignation. In an announcement to the Tribune the day earlier than, Johnson stated he had labored “hand in hand” with Chicago’s Jewish neighborhood to fight anti-Semitism.
“I deeply remorse that I used to be no more exact and considerate in my feedback revealed final yr,” he stated. “Since then I’ve requested for and acquired suggestions from my Jewish pals and colleagues who’ve helped me be extra considerate in how I strategy these delicate points.”
Halil Demir, government director of the Zakat Foundation of America, a multimillion-dollar humanitarian help group, stated he has labored with Reverend Johnson for the reason that pandemic, when the previous board chair contributed to their meals distribution efforts throughout Chicago. Demir had not heard concerning the resignation and was shocked.
“Come on? Are you kidding?” he requested when requested about Rev. Johnson’s posts. “He’s a stable man of God. A stable man of social justice.”
Ten members of the Board of Education shall be elected in November, and Mayor Johnson will appoint 11, together with the president, to affix them. Before Reverend Johnson resigned, the mayor may have determined to maintain him on the brand new hybrid council in January. Now it’s unclear when Mayor Johnson will make his selection for president.
But there’s so much at stake with the Board of Education assembly scheduled for Friday.
There, the mayor’s newly appointed college board — minus the Rev. Johnson — may determine the destiny of CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who has been within the crosshairs largely as a result of he refused to take out a controversial mortgage requested by the mayor to assist finance a brand new Chicago Teachers Union contract and stability the district’s finances.
The Chicago Tribune’s Olivia Olander, Jake Sheridan, Alice Yin and Ikram Mohamed contributed.
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