State school superintendents and local school system leaders across the United States are responding to comments made by teachers on social media about the death of Charlie Kirk.
Emily Anne Gullickson, Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction, strongly condemned reports Saturday morning that school personnel in the Commonwealth have celebrated or condoned Kirk’s public assassination at a student gathering in Utah on September 10.
Gullickson’s statement emphasized that celebration of or condoning political violence has “absolutely no place in Virginia’s public schools.” Behavior on social media reflecting such undermines the values of respect, civility and responsibility expected of educators.
“Anyone who would suggest the heinous murder of the father of two young children is acceptable should be disqualified from teaching or working with children again,” Gullickson said.
In accordance with Virginia Department of Education Standards of Professional Conduct and Ethics, as well as local standards, school systems are called on to promptly investigate reports of such behavior on social media. Violators of the standards should be referred to the VDOE for possible revocation of their teaching licensure.
The VDOE will provide support for school system superintendents in such matters, but will consult the Board of Education regarding action against school systems that do not report such behavior.
“SCS respects staff members’ First Amendment rights to engage in political discourse as private citizens. At the same time, we remind staff to be mindful of school board policies that intersect with their political activity,” the school system said in a statement.
Staunton Schools said that several school board policies and regulations outline expectations for staff conduct with computers. Expectations are also outlined for school employees regarding political activities.
“If the school division receives a complaint about an employee’s social media posts or other private speech, we evaluate those on a case-by-case basis as we are required to do, consistent with applicable law,” said Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeff Cassell.
Newport News Schools, as reported by 13News Now, said the school system was “made aware of social media comments by an employee related to the violence that took place in Utah.” The employee who made the comments on social media was placed on administrative leave while an investigation is conducted by the school system, a spokesperson said. The content of the employee’s comments was not disclosed.
Chesterfield County School Board member Dorothy Heffron resigned effective December 31 after the school system was made aware of her post on social media: “Call me old-fashioned, but I remember when we used to be okay with shooting Nazis.”
A school system spokesperson said in a statement that threats of violence or death “have no place in civil discourse.”
“We recognize the politically charged time that our country is experiencing. We must remember that our words carry weight, and they should be used to build trust, foster understanding and model the respect we want our students to show one another. We must be better than the hatred we have witnessed over the last few days,” the Chesterfield County Schools spokesperson said.
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The assassination of 31-year-old Kirk, a married father of two children and CEO of Turning Point USA, has fueled outrage across the U.S. A 22-year-old Utah man was arrested on suspicion of Kirk’s murder, weapons and obstruction offenses.
Gullickson’s statement concluded with an emphasis on a commitment to safe environments in Virginia’s schools for students to learn and that families can rely on the system to provide that safe environment.
As an employment-at-will state, employers in the Commonwealth may fire an employee for any reason, but not for anything illegal. An illegal termination includes cases of discrimination, taking protected leave (FMLA) or retaliation, but not social media posts.
According to Virginia Education Association President Carol Bauer, the union for teachers and staff in the Commonwealth, the VEA does not agree with the VDOE in the trending situation. She called the VDOE’s statement “a little bit of political overreach.”
“I certainly agree that educators should model professionalism. We really cannot support a blanket condemnation that fails to distinguish between private personal expression and professional conduct,” Bauer said.
Meanwhile, many Virginia educators are experiencing verbal, physical and online harassment for exercising their First Amendment rights online, and Bauer said the union is ready to support “any member whose due process rights have been violated in this climate.”
Bauer hopes the VEA and VDOE can foster a respectful discourse before final decisions and possible revocations, 13News Now reported. She said the union will reach out to Gullickson and discuss ensuring due process is followed instead of jumping to conclusions.
“We all want the same thing — we want great public schools for all our students in Virginia,” Bauer said.
In Iowa, after recommendation by its schools superintendent Mike Fisher, Oskaloosa School Board voted unanimously to fire a high school teacher who posted on social media that Kirk was a Nazi. USA Today reported that the school board would hold a closed session Wednesday night about the personnel matter. The teacher was placed on administrative leave during an investigation.
“I’m all about free speech, and I think that is really proven in case law in different things, but I think it’s also shown in much of the case law that when you have substantial material disruptions, that becomes a concern,” Fisher said, as reported by the Des Moines Register Thursday.
According to a post by U.S. Rep Austin Harris of Iowa on X school districts “will face serious consequences” if they continue to employ individuals who endorse the assassination of Kirk. Harris is chair of the Iowa House Education Appropriations Committee.
An “open conversation” is being held among members of the committee, according to U.S. Rep. Helena Hayes, who also sits on the committee and whose district includes Oskaloosa. She attended Wednesday night’s meeting and told local media that lawmakers are considering if further action is necessary to change state laws regarding discipline of school and university employees when it comes to free speech.
“Free speech matters, but so does protecting children from possibilities of violence being encouraged in them…We never want to support violence. And so we need our educators to be able to walk our students down that path of: ‘Here’s how you work out your differences.’ You talk about them through good dialogue, and of course, you might not end up on the same page. You can agree to disagree,” Hayes said.
Hayes and Harris are both Republicans.
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Rebecca Barnabi
