‘Karens Fight Back.’ Sarasota school officials report image to federal authorities

Days before the Sarasota County School Board met to address its mask policy, an anonymous Facebook group uploaded an image of a gun-wielding woman and a message: “Karens Fight Back!”

Since its inception last month, the Facebook group — “Sarasota County School District Transparency Project” — has posted about Antifa, the “radical left” and the need to challenge mask requirements in local schools, which are operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Facebook group made a separate event page for Tuesday’s school board meeting, urging people to attend, and that’s where the image in question was originally found, district spokesman Craig Maniglia said.

He said the image was reported to both Facebook and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The group is led by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Whenever you have someone brandishing a gun or showing a gun, that’s just our protocol,” he continued. “We weren’t concerned about an imminent threat.”

The Facebook group urged people to speak out during Tuesday’s meeting, when board members were slated to discuss and possibly extend their emergency mask policy. The event page also changed its main image, replacing the gun wielding woman with a picture of someone screaming.

“We kind of like the new thumbnail better,” the Facebook group said in a post. “It’s a perfect representation of the crazy liberals at The School Board.”

The previous image was a doctored photo from the “Big Lebowski” movie. The main character, Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, had his arm outstretched and a gun in his hand, while his head was covered with the face of an unidentified woman. Alongside the figure was a message: “Karens Fight Back!”

It seems the photo was an attempt at humor, and perhaps an attempt to reclaim the word “Karen,” which is often used to express contempt or disapproval for certain people.

“Karen is a pejorative slang term for an obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people’s behaviors,” dictionary.com said on its website. “As featured in memes, Karen is generally stereotyped as having a blonde bob haircut, asking to speak to retail and restaurant managers to voice complaints or make demands, and being an anti-vaxx, Generation X soccer mom.”

According to the Facebook page, the photo originated from a YouTube video titled “KARENS FIGHT BACK Against Leftist INDOCTRINATION In Schools! EPIC! Karens Will SAVE THE WORLD.”

The same Facebook group linked to an online fundraiser by someone who hopes to sue the School Board of Manatee County for its own mask policy. The effort struggled to gain traction, raising $525 of the $11,100 goal after five days.

This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 4:42 PM.