The American Federation of Teachers of Texas is suing the Texas Education Agency over a series of investigations the agency launched over teachers’ comments on social media after the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, president of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University last September. In the weeks that followed, TEA officials launched investigations into more than 300 teachers statewide, including in 25 North Texas school districts, for alleged insensitive comments made in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The agency is still investigating 95 complaints, TEA spokesman Jake Kobersky said Tuesday. All other investigations have been closed, he said.
The teachers organization is asking federal courts to block state education officials from pursuing those investigations. Kobersky said the TEA wouldn’t comment on pending litigation.
In a letter to district superintendents sent last September, Morath said the agency would investigate teachers who made “reprehensible and inappropriate” social media posts after Kirk’s killing.
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The agency is investigating complaints made against teachers in 25 North Texas school districts for alleged insensitive comments made in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The education oversight agency, which has dominion over all public primary schools in Texas, has been soliciting complaints from the public since Kirk’s death.
While the TEA has given a total accounting of hundreds of complaints, records obtained through a public information request show that the agency is reviewing complaints made against numerous North Texas teachers, including educators for Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth, Frisco, Plano and Richardson ISD.
The agency, and to an extent, Republican politicians, have relied on the public to scour social media in search of posts about Kirk’s assassination deemed offensive. Leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have highlighted those comments on social media and called for those teachers to be fired.
“Teachers who are this detached from civility in our society have no place in our schools,” Abbott said in a Sept. 16 post on X, which appeared to show a Seguin ISD teacher stating that in Kirk’s killing, “karma found him.”
The nearly unprecedented examination into the political commentary of public educators has raised concerns about possible violations of First Amendment rights. It also mirrors similar actions taken against some public university students caught on video mocking Kirk’s death or disrupting vigils in his honor.
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It comes as many universities are reexamining curriculum related to gender studies. Recently, political pressure led to the firing of a literature professor at Texas A&M University and the resignation of that college’s president.
Calling such comments “vile,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath has said that he is seeking and referring all complaints to the TEA’s Educator Investigations Division. Those teachers could have their licenses suspended or revoked for violating the Educators’ Code of Ethics.
“While the exercise of free speech is a fundamental right we are all blessed to share, it does not give carte blanche authority to celebrate or sow violence against those that share differing beliefs and perspectives,” Morath wrote in a Sept. 12 letter to superintendents
Under the Texas Public Information Act, The Dallas Morning News requested copies of all complaints made against educators in the days following Kirk’s death. The Texas Education Agency is fighting the request, stating in a letter to the attorney general’s office that disclosing those complaints would violate teacher privacy protections.
However, TEA did provide an accounting of the complaints it had received, outlining where the teachers who received complaints teach.
It indicates complaints were lodged against teachers in at least 25 North Texas school districts and charter schools. The districts include Arlington, Dallas, Denton, Fort Worth, Frisco, Grand Prairie, Irving, Lewisville, McKinney, Mesquite, Plano, Richardson, Rockwall and Tarrant County ISDs.
The accounting only shows complaints made between Sept. 10 and Sept. 17, in the week that followed Kirk’s death. It indicates 279 complaints were made against teachers in 110 districts stretching across the state.
In North Texas, Denton ISD saw the most complaints, with nine logged during that eight-day time period. Only two other school districts, Goose Creek and Pasadena, had more complaints, with 10 each.