“[T]he TEA appears to mandate investigations only for school personnel voicing criticism of the Commissioner’s preferred political figure,” the lawsuit alleges.
The American Federation of Teachers has filed a federal lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency, claiming that dozens of public school employees lost their jobs for sharing unfavorable opinions of Charlie Kirk on social media.
According to The New York Times, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers, a union that represents educators throughout the country.
“A few well-placed Texas politicians and bureaucrats think it is good for their careers to trample on educators’ free speech rights,” said Zeph Capo, the president of the union’s Texas chapter. “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.”
In court filings, attorneys for the union claim that the Texas Education Agency violated teachers’ First Amendment right to free speech by directing state and local officials to aggressively investigate comments about Kirk. The lawsuit notes that most of these comments were made on private social media accounts that would not have been accessible to students or members of the general public. Some teachers were disciplined or terminated as a result.
“This was a state-sponsored attack on teachers because of what they expressed privately to their friends and colleagues and family,” said American Federation of Teachers national president Randi Weingarten.
“You can’t have First Amendment rights for some and not for all,” Weingarten told the New York Times in an interview. Weingarten emphasized that, even if some of the comments about Kirk could be considered “noxious,” people “have this fundamental right to express themselves.”
The lawsuit names defendants including the state education agency and its commissioner, Mike Morath. The Times notes that, in a letter sent to superintendents shortly after Kirk’s death, Morath claimed agency officials had seen “reprehensible” and “vile” postings by a number of public school teachers. In his letter, Morath instructed superintendents to report all “inappropriate” content pertaining to Kirk’s murder.
“While all educators are held to a high standard of professionalism, there is a difference between comments made in poor taste and those that call for and incite further violence—the latter of which is clearly unacceptable,” Morath said in a September statement.
Morath also said that, while some school districts have since made the decision to terminate teachers for criticizing Kirk, the Texas Education Agency itself has not ordered the firing of any individual teacher or teachers.
“Some of those complaints are clearly people that are personally settling scores with others they don’t like, and those cases will just get closed,” Morath said of the investigations. The ones that we’re going after, from an enforcement perspective, are very clearly violations of the educator code of conduct.”
Attorneys for the American Federation of Teachers were quick to observe that the crackdown on Charlie Kirk-related comments appears to be politically motivated.
The Texas Education Agency, the lawsuit emphasizes, did not issue any similar guidance or rules after the murders of Democratic Minnesota lawmakers Melissa Hortman or John Hoffman.
“Instead, the TEA appears to mandate investigations only for school personnel voicing criticism of the Commissioner’s preferred political figure,” the lawsuit alleges.
Sources
350 Texas teachers targeted for posts about Charlie Kirk, lawsuit says
A union is suing Texas’ education agency for investigating teachers over posts about Charlie Kirk
Texas Is Sued Over Investigations Into Teachers’ Speech After Charlie Kirk’s Death
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