Fight over California school board member’s Instagram ‘likes’ escalates into Nazi name-calling

A school board meeting in Redlands, California, devolved into name-calling and Nazi comparisons this week amid a heated argument over a board member’s social media activity.

A school board meeting in Redlands, California, devolved into name-calling and Nazi comparisons this week amid a heated argument over a board member’s social media activity.

Candy Olson — part of the board's conservative-voting majority — has hit “like” on Instagram carousels of images that include racist and antisemitic memes, according to screenshots collected by a group of parents. More than 1,500 people have written to the board as part of a campaign by a local activist group, Together for Redlands, calling for Olson’s resignation.

“We have real problems in our district, and instead of focusing on them, she is liking and sharing the most horrifying content I’ve seen in a long time,” said Samantha Trad, a parent and one of the leaders of Together for Redlands. “A person like that is unfit to serve the district.”

Olson, who declined interview requests, has said she intended to like some of the more apolitical images in the Instagram carousels instead — like a meme showing a chicken dressed in high heels — and has unfollowed the account because she does not agree with the more inflammatory images it posted. The carousels she liked included a picture of Adolf Hitler and Jesus apparently commiserating about Jewish people; an image of Ned Flanders, a character on “The Simpsons,” dressed in a Nazi uniform; and a meme that appeared to joke about hitting an LGBTQ Pride parade with a car.

“Just because I like one slide out of a deck of 18 does not mean I like all slides,” Olson said at the end of Tuesday night’s board meeting. She added, “This all happened because the radical progressives in this town don’t agree with the policies I’m working towards.”