(The Lion) — A Florida mom confronted a school board after her child’s teacher allegedly nominated her son as “Most Likely to Become a Dictator,” a so-called honor likely tied to the family’s political views.

This week the mother faced the Alachua School District board in a hearing conducted by the Florida Board of Education (BOE) regarding the district’s possible violations of parental rights. She had previously raised concerns about books in the elementary library.

As a result of the testimony from parents, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas concluded “there is a toxic environment” at school board meetings, with the board chair often unlawfully cutting off parental comments, including those previously made by the mother.

Crystal Marull, Ph.D., told The Lion she thinks her children were singled out for punishment because of her family’s conservative ideals.

Marull, named one of the Florida university system’s best educators in 2023, has a K-12 certificate and teaches Spanish online for the University of Florida, winning several awards for her teaching.

Last year she challenged the school district over a book about “gender identity” and sexuality. She objected specifically to a book at an elementary school called It Feels Good To Be Yourself.

Kirkus Review called the book an “expansive, straightforward framing of gender [which] emphasizes curiosity, joy, and positive self-expression.”

Marull questioned whether the book was appropriate for an elementary school.

She said she had no objection to such books being in the local library available to children under parental supervision, but it’s too sexual for an elementary school library.

“We’re not talking about high school students who have at least some worldly understanding of sexual identity and other mature concepts,” Marull wrote in the local press. “These vulnerable children are still tracing their letters in class, they’re just beginning to grasp the nuances of language.”

She also noted inclusion of the book was a violation of state statute.

Still, the Alachua district board voted unanimously to keep the books on the shelf and refused to let her speak freely at a board meeting to make her case.

Marull, other parents and the state BOE said the district repeatedly uses unlawful tactics to keep parents from speaking up at board meetings, while also retaliating against parents protesting the district’s woke policies.

“My son, 6 years old, was prohibited from sitting next to his friend on the school bus because a parent objected to my perspectives on book challenges,” Marull told board members about the library controversy.

She told The Lion when parents challenge books, the district takes videos of parents as they argue on behalf of having a book removed, while the district lawyer “cross-examines” the parents.

Subsequently, district insiders share those videos with politically motivated special interest groups, which then use the material online to try to embarrass parents.

“And it was the Twitter page that was defaming me with [such] clips by an activist group that permeated the school culture,” Marull told The Lion, calling the culture “toxic.”

Things got so bad for her eldest son that after a 2023 incident, she removed him from public schools and started homeschooling him.

“My older son’s history teacher allowed students to label him a Nazi-phile simply for his interest in history and participation in ROTC,” Marull said about the incident.

“She [the teacher] later nominated my son as the most likely to become a dictator, and had his classmates vote on it and try to force him to the front of the class to receive the certificate, which he rightly refused, all because of his conservative values and our perspectives,” she added.

Indeed, a closer inspection of the video meeting with the state Board of Education shows Marull holding up what looks like a computer-printed certificate saying, “Most Likely To Become a Dictator.”

In the social media post accompanying the video of the meeting, Marull said the students in her eldest son’s class had a 69% failure rate in the course, while her son was ranked with “Excellent Understanding.”

“You’d think she’d have awarded him a certificate of achievement instead, but no, in @AlachuaSchools such achievement is branded as fascism,” she said.

The BOE hearings follow a separate incident where board member Sarah Rockwell posted on social media about the passing of wrestler Hulk Hogan.

“Good. One less MAGA,” she said.

Rockwell argued she apologized previously about the Hogan insult, saying her anti-MAGA comments were made in her capacity as a private citizen exercising her First Amendment rights, not in her official capacity as a board member.

Kamoutsas, the state’s education commissioner, recommended the district institute a training program for board members in respecting parental rights.  He noted the board should be monitored for the entire 2025-2026 year to ensure members remain in compliance.

For Marull’s eldest son, the incidents have sparked more success than he could have had otherwise, the proud mother told The Lion.

Since he’s no longer tied to the public-school system, he’s achieved fluency in English and Spanish, and proficiency in French, Russian and – coming soon – Romanian.

“He’s going into his 12th grade year this year,” Marull said. “And he has pretty much finished his associate’s degree through dual enrollment. He has one course left to finish.”