NC pastor escorted from Wake school board meeting in handcuffs. Was it a publicity stunt?
A local pastor has garnered millions of views on social media after he was escorted from a Wake County school board meeting in handcuffs this week.
John Amanchukwu, a Wake Forest resident and an assistant and youth pastor at Raleigh’s Upper Room Church of God in Christ, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, accusing board members of violating Senate Bill 49, or “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” by allowing books with “pornographic” content and discussions of gender identity in school libraries.
Amanchukwu told the board he was there to support Lorena Benson, a 15-year-old former sophomore at Raleigh’s Athens Drive High School. Benson complained at a board meeting late last month of incestuous sexual content in a story she said she was forced to read in an English class. She withdrew from the school because of the incident.
“Justice for Lorena Benson!” Amanchukwu repeatedly cried. “Say her name!”
What happened at the school board meeting
Amanchukwu describes himself as a preacher, activist and author who contributes to the faith division of Turning Point USA, a conservative organization focusing on high school and college students.
Like other conservative Wake County residents, he’s previously spoken at school board meetings, recently earning public support from Michele Morrow, the Republican candidate for North Carolina superintendent of public schools.
At the end of his remarks Tuesday, Amanchukwu declared he would remain at the podium after his allotted three minutes expired.
“Guess what? Since you like to break laws, since you won’t give Lorena Benson justice, when this clock hits three minutes, I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
Video from Tuesday’s meeting shows Amanchukwu stood at the podium for at least five minutes before being guided away by a Wake County sheriff’s deputy. In a video posted by a bystander, Amanchukwu, surrounded by attendees clad in Michele Morrow T-shirts, talked to the deputy and members of the crowd by the entrance to the boardroom for at least five minutes.
“They are breaking the law!” he exclaimed. “I am not the transgressor; they are. Could you imagine your 15-year-old daughter coming to the school board and reading a message and telling the board that she feels traumatized because she was forced to read a pornographic book?”
Video shows Amanchukwu was not handcuffed and removed from the building until at least 10 minutes after his allotted public comment period ended. After several minutes of discussion with the deputy and officers from the Cary Police Department, at the end of the bystander’s video, the deputy can be seen removing Amanchukwu’s handcuffs.
Amanchukwu does not appear to have been charged with any crime, according to a public-records search Thursday
In a statement shared with The News & Observer, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said, “When [Amanchukwu] continued to resist, he was handcuffed briefly, but cooperated soon after, at which time the handcuffs were removed and the member agreed to leave.”
Social-media video goes viral
Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, shared a video of the interaction in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that had 2.9 million views as of Thursday afternoon.
“This is UNACCEPTABLE!” Kirk wrote. “Instead of putting preachers in handcuffs, we should be arresting the perverted creeps who subject kids to this filth. We must fight for the innocence of children.”
In several posts to his X account, Amanchukwu condemned the actions taken Tuesday, writing, “The board breaks the law and no one cares, I protest and the cops cuff me?”
Under Senate Bill 49, it is not illegal to have books on gender identity and sexuality available in a school library; it is only illegal for schools to teach content on those topics to students in kindergarten through fourth grade, according to the law. Senate Bill 49 also established parents’ right to review materials their child has borrowed from the school library.
In social media posts, Amanchukwu used the incident to promote his “22 Words” documentary, which premiered Thursday. According to the film’s website, the documentary focuses on Amanchukwu’s journeys to school boards across the country and “delves into the profound consequences of removing prayer and the Bible from American schools.”
A publicity stunt, board chair says
School board Chair Chris Heagarty said Thursday that board members “did nothing that violates that law.”
Heagarty otherwise referred to comments he made during the latter portion of Tuesday’s meeting.
“What we just saw was a publicity stunt, plain and simple,” he said Tuesday. “It’s not the content of what’s being said. It’s coming in and disrupting a meeting and holding things up.”
This story was originally published October 4, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
