Republican Michigan Rep. John James called out a local school board for censuring an elected trustee who blew the whistle on a secret plan to increase taxes.
Rochester Community Schools Board of Education Trustee Carol Beth Litkouhi sued the district on Feb. 3, the Detroit News reported, accusing the board of violating her First Amendment rights by censuring her and removing her from all committees after she publicly exposed the tax hike. James, who represents the district, appeared at a March 9 school board meeting to defend the ousted whistleblower.
“In the army, we had a saying, Mission first, people always. You cannot accomplish the mission working against the people you serve,” James said at the start of his speech, which he posted on X. “That’s exactly what’s happening in this school district.”
WATCH:
The Rochester school board secretly planned a tax increase and told their own elected trustee to keep quiet. She refused and told the truth. They censured her for it, refused to stand for the Pledge, and tried to silence me when I showed up to defend her.
Michigan deserves… pic.twitter.com/GJjN7B42cg
— John James (@JohnJamesMI) March 9, 2026
Should the school board cease censorship of officials exposing tax hike plans?
Litkouhi exposed the plan in an October 30 op-ed in the Detroit News, revealing that school boards in Oakland County, Michigan were seeking to place an “Enhancement Millage” on the ballot as soon as August of 2026. The Board of Education censured her and removed her from all committees on Nov. 10 in apparent retaliation for the op-ed, according to The Midwesterner.
“I want to speak directly to the board about Trustee Litkouhi. What Carol Beth Litkouhi did took courage, what I’m not seeing out of this board here today,” James said when confronting the board. “School officials briefed you behind closed doors, handed you a message to sell a tax hike to voters, and told you to stay quiet.”
“You said no,” James continued, addressing Litkouhi. “You wrote the truth and for that the board censured you, stripped your committee assignments, adopted a written gag rule, and silenced an elected official from speaking freely to the public she represents. They silenced an elected official for telling the truth.”
James also referenced an incident in Rockford, Michigan, saying a school attempted to socially transition a child behind the back of her parents.
“Across the state in Rockford, school officials secretly encouraged a young girl to adopt male identity without ever telling her parents,” Jones said. “That family had to hire a lawyer just to get answers because the school decided it knew better than them.”
James is running for governor in Michigan, where Democrat Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited.
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