{"id":80386,"date":"2025-12-12T04:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T04:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80386\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T04:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T04:43:14","slug":"teachers-pulled-from-classroom-due-to-controversial-charlie-kirk-comments-file-federal-lawsuits-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80386\/","title":{"rendered":"Teachers pulled from classroom due to controversial Charlie Kirk comments file federal lawsuits \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Two local teachers are fighting back after being pulled from the classroom<\/a> for making controversial comments<\/a> in the wake of Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination. <\/p>\n

They\u2019ve both filed federal lawsuits in which they claim their free speech rights have been violated.<\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n

The two teachers suing Duval County Public Schools are Douglas Anderson School of the Arts teacher Hope McMath and Oak Hill Academy paraeducator Haley Bartlett.<\/p>\n

McMath\u2019s post read in-part \u201cKarma\u2019s a b****\u201d while Bartlett reposted a video she describes as showing disagreement with Kirk\u2019s views.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m sitting here, not just for Hope McMath, part-time AP art history teacher at Douglas Anderson, but for all our teachers out there,\u201d McMath said.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Prominent Douglas Anderson teacher removed over social media post \u2013 now she\u2019s lawyered up<\/a><\/p>\n

Both teachers said since being removed from the classroom they\u2019ve been assigned to menial tasks with no word one when they\u2019ll be allowed t return, if they can return at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely affected my mental health a ton and a lot of people around me,\u201d Bartlett said.<\/p>\n

Their attorney, John Phillips, argued the district has not only violated the teachers\u2019 First Amendment rights, but is also engaged in selective enforcement.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Duval School Board\u2019s \u2018turning point\u2019 shirts spark hypocrisy claims amid firings, investigations\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Their lawsuits cite serval examples of posts made by other district teachers commenting on social and political issues from a conservative perspective who have not faced any disciplinary action.<\/p>\n

Incidents involving school board members wearing shirts<\/a> with nods to Kirk\u2019s organization Turning Point USA during a school board meeting and those members\u2019 associations with the conservative organization Mom\u2019s For Liberty are also cited in the lawsuits.<\/p>\n

Phillips espoused confidence his clients have a strong case and will come out on top, given a recent ruling that went against DCPS in a similar case.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n

That case involved a former Duval math teacher who successfully sued the district<\/a> after he was suspended in 2020 for reposting controversial rhetoric about then-Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you release confidential information, top secret information? Absolutely not, you can\u2019t. There are lines, but political speech has always been protected,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n

While Bartlett\u2019s suit only targets DCPS, McMath\u2019s suit also names the Florida Department of Education, four individual school board members and the state commissioner of education. <\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n

McMath\u2019s suit also includes defamation claims against Moms for Liberty, which was the group that filed the initial complaint against her. <\/p>\n

DCPS declined to address the specific allegations in the suit due to the active litigation, but did tell Action News Jax, \u201cAny response from the district will be provided through the appropriate judicial proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve reached out to the Florida Department of Education as well and are awaiting a response.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n

Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Two local teachers are fighting back after being pulled from the classroom for making controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15864,982,16051,44852,44842,1040,44843,44844,639,12796,44847,44845,969,116,118,117,971,970,10417,44851,44849,44850,44854,634,44848,44846,12568,44853],"class_list":["post-80386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-ap","tag-action_news","tag-bartlett","tag-bernie_sanders","tag-charlie_kirk","tag-dcps","tag-democratic","tag-douglas_anderson","tag-duval_county","tag-duvall","tag-haley_bartlett","tag-hope_mcmath","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jake_stowan","tag-john_phillips","tag-karma","tag-kirk","tag-liberty","tag-local","tag-mcmath","tag-oak_hill_academy","tag-phillips","tag-state_department_of_education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}