This article has been updated with new information.
Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, some fellow conservatives and prominent social media accounts have gone after educators who made posts that were critical of Kirk or made light of his death.
As public and political pressure mounts, schools must decide whether to back their teachers' or professors' right to speak freely or drop staff a couple of months into the school year. Their decisions could result in additional public scrutiny, including from elected officials, or risk violating their employees' First Amendment rights, which could lead to litigation.
In Indiana, IndyStar has confirmed three school districts parted ways with teachers following their comments. However, a handful of schools and colleges stood by their employees' right to freedom of speech while under pressure from right-wing politicians and personalities.
This new wave of pressure follows several years of increased scrutiny of teachers' actions inside and outside the classroom. An increasingly socially conservative Indiana legislature has made schools the chief battleground of the culture wars. Recently passed laws dictate what K-12 teachers can call students and what books schools can have. They also have required professors to maintain "intellectual diversity," inserted more review into the tenure process and banned funding for a sex research institute.
The Indiana Federation of Teachers is advising teachers to refrain from commenting about the assassination on social media, Executive Director Sally Sloan said. They especially need to be careful about what they say because of the current scrutiny, she said.
A statement from the Indiana State Teachers Association condemned Kirk's "horrific" killing and called for people to take steps toward unity instead of division.
"Educators devote their lives to creating safe and welcoming environments for students," the statement reads. "We call on all leaders to use this moment to tone down divisive rhetoric and work to bring people together."
As a grassroots campaign ramped up to seek justice for comments about Kirk, so did calls for people to be fired from their jobs. In the days following Kirk's death, headlines have populated across the country detailing educators whose comments got them fired.
In Indiana, the Danville Community School Corp. said a teacher resigned in the early stages of the statutory review process. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith criticized a comment she allegedly made on Facebook, where she condemned the killing but said Kirk reaped what he sowed.
"Teachers like this are why Indiana public schools are radicalizing your children to hate those who disagree with them," Beckwith said in an all-caps post about her comment.
And Durham Township Superintendent Brian Ton confirmed a teacher at Westville Middle School in LaPorte County was no longer employed following comments she made about Kirk. The Times of Northwest Indiana reported she resigned.
"Parents have every right to know about the values and conduct of those entrusted with educating their children," the AG's office said in a statement.
Still, teachers and other public employees have First Amendment protections that private employees do not. A 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case established that public employees do not lose their First Amendment rights on matters of public importance when expressed in their private capacity. That means public institutions that fire workers for comments in their personal capacity may be violating their constitutional rights, experts told IndyStar.
Public pressure campaign
Schools that stand by their employees face a barrage of threats from lawmakers and commenters alike. Ball State is one of several universities facing a wall of conservative backlash.
The weekend after Kirk's death, officials at Ball State University released a statement to say it was reviewing two employees' comments and deciding if discipline was necessary or appropriate under the First Amendment. That X post drew over 11,000 replies, including calls to pull public funding and a renewed demand to fire the two employees.
Meanwhile, the University of Evansville, which, unlike Ball State, is private, said in a statement that it will back associate professor Lisa Hale after an online debate over her comments called her employment into question. The Evansville Courier & Press reported that a local Facebook debate was kicked off after another resident sent a screenshot of her comment.
Hale posted: "Amen! (to a post saying Kirk left a hateful legacy) People painting this guy as a saint do so because they buy in to the hate he mongered. It's MAGA on steroids."
The university's response to calls for punishment: "We recognize that people disagree with these views. We also recognize that Charlie Kirk valued debate and the exchange of ideas, even with those who disagreed with him. In that spirit, it would run counter to his legacy to ask that differing opinions be silenced."
First Amendment considerations
Some school districts have acknowledged their employees' First Amendment protection in their responses to teacher comments.
The South Bend Community School Corp. said in a statement that, because the district is a public employer, it is governed by the U.S. Constitution, which "provides a fundamental right of freedom of speech," and SBCSC's regulation of that speech is limited.
The district did not say what teacher made the comments or what those comments were.
A teacher at Valparaiso Community Schools was also targeted online for an alleged post. Superintendent Jim McCall said the district cannot discuss personnel matters but is reviewing the situation regarding the employee "who posted the objectionable material on her personal social media account."
"We value the right of individuals to express personal opinions outside of work," he said in an email. "At the same time, we do hold our staff to high professional standards to ensure a respectful and supportive environment for all our students.
The South Bend Tribune's Rayleigh Deaton and Evansville Courier & Press's Thomas B. Langhorne contributed to this report.
By Cate Charron and Marissa Meador