Chaya Raichik lives in Florida. On June 7, 2024, she tagged the Baltimore County schools superintendent in a post on X and said a teacher in the district “is posting messages about” murdering moms. (She starred out two letters of “murdering.”)
That teacher was Alexa Sciuto. She sued. And on Oct. 21, a Maryland judge refused to let Raichik, who runs Libs of TikTok, out of the case.
Baltimore County Circuit Judge Marc DeSimone Jr. denied Raichik’s motion to dismiss, The Baltimore Banner reported. He found she had received proper notice of the suit. He also pointed to the Maryland accounts she tagged in deciding that the case could be heard there.
“This is not one letter, one phone call,” DeSimone said. “This is a party line.”
This is a ruling allowing the case to continue, not a finding that Raichik defamed Sciuto. Raichik’s lawyer, Jonathan Gross, declined to comment to the Banner.
How a Question About “Woke” Turned Into the Sciuto Lawsuit
It started on June 3, 2024, at the Parental Power Summit, a “parents’ rights” event at the Sheraton in Towson. Sciuto, an LGBTQIA+ advocate and stand-up comic who teaches Spanish, went and asked the panel what “woke” means. Moms for Liberty had handed out stickers that said “Stop woke indoctrination,” according to her lawsuit. The Banner reported more than 666,000 views on her TikTok of the exchange in April.
Kit Hart, chair of the Carroll County chapter of Moms for Liberty, was a speaker. She posted on X: “Hey, haters! Thanks for all of the comments! You’re really boosting my exposure so I appreciate you!” Sciuto quote-tweeted it: “Officer I swear I didn’t mean to murder her.” She has said the line was rhetorical and that she’d never hurt anyone.
Then it snowballed. Four Republican state delegates, Kathy Szeliga, Ryan Nawrocki, Robin Grammer Jr. and Lauren Arikan, wrote to Baltimore County schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers, called it a death threat and demanded she be fired, the Banner reported in April. Libs of TikTok spread the letter. The district barred Sciuto from its property. She had already taken a new job and resigned.
She sued in 2025, alleging defamation and false light, among other claims.
Who’s Still a Defendant in Alexa Sciuto’s Case
The five lawmaker defendants are out. Judge Ralph L. Sapia dismissed them in April because Sciuto hadn’t given the state proper notice.
Hart is still in, on four of the 10 statements the suit cites. She allegedly kept saying Sciuto made death threats and was forced to resign after Sciuto told her she wasn’t fired. Her lawyer, F.J. Collins, has argued her statements were opinion protected by the First Amendment.
Janet Greenhawk, chair of Talbot County’s Moms for Liberty chapter and editor of the Easton Gazette, is also still in. According to the lawsuit, a Gazette article said Sciuto had been asked to resign and called her a “poisonous individual.” DeSimone kept the defamation and false light claims against her but said she can’t be hit with punitive damages. The Banner quoted her lawyer, Marc Schifanelli, saying they were “very pleased with the judge’s ruling.”
Sciuto even had to serve Raichik by TikTok, the Banner reported in July. The court let her post the notice tagging @LibsOfTikTok, along with mailing it and printing it in a local paper.
In a statement published by the Banner in April, Sciuto described “years of repeated accusations that I indoctrinate children, amplified to an audience of millions.” She said, “Whether those accusations were true didn’t matter.”
In comments outside the courtroom reported by the Banner, her lawyer, Nick McDaniels, said they’re “very encouraged that this case is allowed to proceed.” The Banner reported that the case would move into discovery, with no next court date set as of its Oct. 22 report.
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