Social media page operated by school board member’s adult son draws criticism, law enforcement investigation
Several citizens call for Michelle Antoine to resign
JOHNSTON COUNTY – Controversy is once again surrounding the Johnston County Board of Education. Tuesday evening, several citizens, including a former high school principal, asked school board member Michelle Antoine to resign.
The calls for her to step down follow an investigation by the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office into a Facebook page named Ronald Johnson’s Prison Cell Phone.
On January 27, 2025, Christine Livingston of Benson filed a harassment complaint with the sheriff’s office following comments allegedly posted about her on the Facebook page. Afterwards, three other individuals, Angela McLeod Barbour of Benson, Cecilia Helm of Middlesex, and school board member Kevin Donovan of Smithfield filed similar complaints about disparaging comments made on the social media page.
The sheriff’s office recently concluded their investigation and determined it was Michelle Antoine’s 21 year-old adult son who was operating the Facebook page, according to an email from the detective who handled the complaint.
“At the conclusion of the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into the Facebook page Ronald Johnson’s Prison Cell Phone, evidence was turned over to Mr. Zellinger with the NC Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General was consulted at the request of the Johnston County District Attorney’s Office,” Detective B. Allen wrote in an email to the complainants.
“Evidence received from Facebook legal processes indicate that a Facebook page belonging to Parker Antoine is operating the reported Facebook page from a residential IP Address belonging to Michelle Antoine. After review of the evidence provided to Mr. Zellinger, he advised that there is insufficient evidence to prove a violation of the Cyberstalking statute, or any other North Carolina criminal statue beyond a reasonable doubt, due to First Amendment rights. It is recommended that you speak with an attorney if you wish to pursue further legal action civilly,” Detective Allen stated in the email.
Citizens Ask For Resignation
During the public comments section of the March 11 school board, several citizens criticized Mrs. Antoine and called for her resignation.
Christine Livingston, who filed the harassment complaint on Jan. 27, was among the speakers. She said the Facebook page personally attacked her with “defamatory, liable, and slanderous” comments and asked the Board to investigate.
Former Clayton High Principal Bennett Jones stated Mrs. Antoine conspired with Ronald Johnson in his “misdeeds” and “broke policy.” He called Mrs. Antoine a “narcissistic bully” who sought to “intimate others”. “Your presence is a distraction,” Jones said while calling for her immediate resignation.
Allen Hall said Antoine used her position for personal revenge and as a platform to spread hateful rhetoric. “It is not leadership, it is bullying.”
Another speaker, Ben Chapman, called Mrs. Antoine a “terrible individual” who should resign.
Antoine Says Lawsuit Will Be Filed
Mrs. Antoine did not respond to her critics Tuesday night but released a statement Wednesday afternoon. The statement reads:
The Johnston County Sheriff’s office and District Attorney executed an unlawful search warrant where no crime existed, as confirmed by the Attorney General, in order to ascertain who was behind an anonymous political parody page.
The Facebook political parody page Ronald Johnson’s Prison Cell Phone was linked to the Facebook account of Parker Antoine, I had nothing to do with the page. Parker Antoine is my adult son. He has many pages and groups he runs on social media and has for years.
The Sheriff’s office and District Attorney tried to extort and use the color of law to intimidate me into chilling the speech of my adult son when they called me in and told me to make the page go away and our names would not be released. I left the option of continuing the page up to my son, who made the decision that his protected speech should not be infringed.
They violated both my and my son’s first, fourth, and fourteenth amendment rights and continue to do so by releasing our names. My son has been doxxed online with his work, school, and home locations being released. After the Johnston County School Board meeting on Tuesday, where the crowd was vitriolic and threatening toward me due to the unlawful release of my name, a Sheriff’s deputy needed to escort me to my vehicle.
The government does not have the right to infringe speech they dislike. They do not have the right to intimidate and use the threat of law to chill speech, or to take away anonymity in speech. This parody page is a highly protected form of political speech. The egregious actions by the Johnston County Sheriff’s Department and local District Attorney leave question to their integrity and fairness for the average citizen, if they are so bold to do this to an elected official.
A civil rights lawsuit is forthcoming.
Michelle Antoine was elected to the District 1 seat on the Johnston County Board of Education in November 2022.
Dumpster fire.
The Smithfield Swamp is sickening. It needs to be cleaned out as bad as DC does. Raleigh needs to be purged of life long bureaucrats as well.
Where’s DOGE when we need them? Get rid of the entire JoCo Board of Ed and let parents educate their own kids.
She and Donavan both Need to be kicked off. He is just like her. Lets not forget they ran together They all need to go
She should not be on the board that’s like wanting to get a check from Walmart, but not work there
She can’t stand public schools so bad she won’t her kids attend public schools
Well, it may not suit your taste and you may truly hate what the FB page has put out, but it’s not really anything defamatory. It’s actually just making fun of what is actually going on and should make people take a closer look at just how ridiculous things have gotten! I mean our school board is a joke! There is no working together. I do believe we have some people who are true conservatives on the board but they are terrified of being overly conservative. I can tell you North of Smithfield is CONSERVATIVE! They may still be quite about it but in the privacy of their homes they don’t agree with the transgender mess in schools and they certainly don’t think it is the job of the schools to speak to their children about it! These are the people who talk to their kids at home and keep it private AT HOME! These are the kids that are ending up in private schools, homeschooling, or going to charter schools. This is why public education is being dismantled and crumbling! The school board is hearing from a lot of liberal parents. I can promise you that they ARE NOT the majority. The conservatives ones will just seek vouchers and other avenues to educate their children. Keep it up and we won’t need a school board. Also, lets hold off on funding any new schools. I don’t think we are going to need them. We won’t have the children to fill them.
Our “legal counsel” showed her bias in my humble opinion when she stated her stance on the bullying policy. I don’t believe she was actually giving the best advice and could cost us federal funding. There is no room for error! You leave the wording in and risk losing funding, you take it out and that risk disappears. It’s really a no brainer! Why would an attorney give you advice to risk it?
She’s trying to remove bullying protections. Whether or not you or any others “disagree” with the “transgender mess”, removing protections only enables abuse.
No she’s not! She said the policy should state that bullying should not be tolerated period! No additional wording as that covers all bullying! I don’t agree with transgender or people thinking they’re some kind of animal instead of a human being! However that doesn’t give anyone the right to bully them and it’s not bullying by just saying God made them male and female. You nor anyone else has to believe that, but that doesn’t make it bullying!
This woman needs a mental evaluation!
I agree !
I watched the board meeting the other night. You should too, it’s on youtube. These “citizens” are nothing more than communist sympathizers and members of Down Home NC, a radical, revolutionary group seeking to overthrow any conservative in local government that dare refuse bending the knee to their will.
Time is to vocally oppose these people and encourage and support our local leaders that have the courage to let these people know their ideologies ARE. NOT. WELCOME. in Johnston County. The time for attempts of tolerance are over.
Rawr go get him. No one belongs in Joco except the people I agree with.
H*ll yeah brother !
“Everyone who disagrees with me is a communist”
Thank you for demonstrating your mental illness for the class.
Speaking of mental illnesses, please define “woman” to the class.
Once again JOCO School Board going after a conservative.
Allen Hall is involved in so much drama. Hard to take anything serious when that goofballs name is mentioned !
He is a POS Devil worshipping Ahole who wants to start Devil worshipping clubs in our schools. He has a record for imbezzling money from a company he worked for and they pressed charges! He is known for starting trouble with everyone in the Republican Party! He does not need to be near anyones children let alone on any school board!
He is a sick POS. He embezzled money and has a record. He hates Republicans and threatens them. He wanted to start a devil worship group in schools! This person should be nowhere near children!
She is on here commenting
So joco sheriff dept did an investigation of bullying to the extent they contacted Facebook, identified the ip address, then connected the ip address to Antoine,then contacted the nc AG, then at a board meeting a former principal and failed candidate called her “narcissistic bully” who sought to “intimate others” ( hoping it was a misprint and meant to read “intimidate”) which seems an awful like bullying to me. This entire board, if they truly care about the students and teachers, should resign. They are dysfunctional, ineffective and have lost the public’s trust. They are the laughingstock of the state.