An Ohio mayor's threats to criminally charge school district employees was 'reckless' and 'irresponsible', prosecutor finds

• The mayor of Hudson, Ohio, accused the local school board of "distributing essentially child pornography" at a September meeting.
• The Summit County prosecutor investigated Mayor Craig Shubert's comments but did not file charges.

A local prosecutor released a report on Tuesday condemning the mayor of Hudson, Ohio, for threatening to criminally charge school board members over a writing assignment.

Some parents in the Hudson School District were upset about a book, "642 things to Write About," that was given to high school students through a college-level class, according to Fox 8. The news outlet reported that parents criticized the book for having "inappropriate themes."

Hudson Schools Superintendent Phil Herman told Fox 8, "it's clear that, as a district, we did not properly review this resource."

During a Hudson School Board meeting in September, Mayor Craig Shubert threatened officials with criminal charges if they allowed the book to stay in the school's curriculum.

"It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography," Shubert said in the meeting, according to a recording published by WKYC. "I'm going to give you a simple choice, either you choose to resign from this board of education or you will be charged."

A spokesperson for the school district told WKYC at the time that parents had signed a form that said mature content might be discussed in the class. The chair of the Hudson County School Board and Shubert did not immediately return Insider's requests for comment on Tuesday.

The chief of the Hudson Police Department requested that Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh investigate the curriculum and the mayor's comments, according to Fox 8.

Walsh released her report on Tuesday and announced that she would not be filing charges against Shubert, but did condemn his comments as "irresponsible." Walsh also found that "642 things to Write About" does not contain child pornography and is not graphic.

"As a prosecutor and a mother, I am always concerned about claims of individuals being involved in child pornography," Walsh wrote in the report. "However, in this case, these allegations were false and caused numerous public servants to be victimized."

Walsh accused Shubert in the report of "reckless conduct," which she said led to threats and "hate-filled words from around the country." The prosecutor wrote that people making threats were ignorant of what was actually in the school curriculum and were emboldened by the mayor's false claims because of his status as an elected official.