Teachers Union Launches Lawsuits at Schools Who Punished Teachers for Cheering Charlie Kirk's Murder
After the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in September, the nation was shocked to see thousands of their progressive friends and neighbors take to social media to voice their glee.
A substantial share were teachers, raising questions of whether they were qualified to mold the minds of young children.
But the American Federation of Teachers appears to think such questions are inappropriate.
The teachers union filed a lawsuit on Jan. 6 seeking to block Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath from investigating teachers’ off-colored remarks about Kirk in the wake of his murder, according to a report from The Texas Tribune.
The lawsuit centers on four specific cases of educators who the American Federation of Teachers believes faced unfair discipline.
A lawsuit the Texas American Federation of Teachers filed Jan. 6 argues Mike Morath “unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers.” https://t.co/lhSmrid7b9
— NewsWest9 (@newswest9) January 7, 2026
Educators experienced consequences “solely for their speech, without any regard to whether the posts disrupted school operations in any way,” the lawsuit argued.
The complaint said Morath “unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers” when he asked school districts to report “reprehensible and inappropriate” comments about Kirk posted by teachers.
The American Federation of Teachers believes that superintendents cannot be made to report such conduct if it is protected speech.
There were a nontrivial number of questionable remarks posted by Texas teachers after the murder of the Christian husband and father.
In October, there were over 350. As of Jan. 5, there are still 95 open investigations.
Zeph Capo, the president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, condemned the investigations in a statement, according to a report from The Hill.
“Somewhere and somehow, our state’s leaders lost their way. A few well-placed Texas politicians and bureaucrats think it is good for their careers to trample on educators’ free speech rights,” he asserted.
“They decided scoring a few cheap points was worth the unfair discipline, the doxxing, and the death threats targeted at Texas teachers,” Capo added.
“Meanwhile, educators and their families are afraid that they’ll lose everything: their livelihoods, their reputations, and their very purpose for being, which is to impart critical thinking.”
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