The Texas Education Agency is investigating teachers who post “reprehensible” content about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, following widespread left-wing celebration of bloodshed. 

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced on September 12 that the TEA is investigating teachers and staff who share “reprehensible and inappropriate content” online about Kirk’s assassination.

 

Abbott posted a letter from Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who called Kirk’s assassination “heartbreaking.” Morath said he would refer evidence of “vile content” to the TEA Educator Investigations Division as a possible violation 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. “Kirk was a father and a husband, and tragically, his children no longer have a father, and his wife no longer has her spouse.”

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham asked members of the public to report misconduct to TEA’s Educator Misconduct and Investigations division. 

State Board of Education Member Julie Pickren asked the same, directing members of the public to a TEA portal to report potential violations of the code of ethics. 

“Teachers are entrusted with shaping young minds, and they have a responsibility to value human life and respect the rule of law,” Pickren said to The Dallas Express. “Anyone who is celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk is undermining the principles of liberty and free speech and should not be teaching Texas children.”

Glorifying Assassination

Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated while answering students’ questions at Utah Valley University when a single shot rang out on September 10.

Many teachers across the nation – and in Texas – celebrated the murder online.

Linda Garcia, reportedly a teacher at Ector County ISD near Odessa, allegedly wished that Kirk would “rot in hell.”

A student-teacher intern from Baylor University, working at Midway Middle School near Waco, reportedly wrote “this made me giggle” about Kirk’s assassination, according to KWTX. The school’s principal said he would not be returning to teach.

Jonathan Washington, an elementary teacher at Pasadena ISD near Houston, reportedly made light of Kirk’s death. 

“Charlie Kirk is dead and I just saved 100 dollars by switching to GEICO,” he wrote on Facebook.

Jennifer Courtemanche, a teacher at Goose Creek Consolidated ISD near Houston, reportedly suggested Kirk got what was coming to him. According to the Houston Chronicle, officials with the district said “hateful or violent rhetoric” was unacceptable.

“Could Kirk have baited just ONE too many people? Could this have been the consequences of his actions catching up with him?” Courtemanche reportedly wrote on Facebook.

Derek Woods, a teacher at Klein ISD near Houston, allegedly suggested Kirk deserved to be shot. In a letter to parents, district officials said they would “swiftly and decisively” deal with misconduct. And according to the Houston Chronicle, they ultimately fired Woods. 

“THAT MAN WAS A HORRIBLE F*CKING HUMAN BEING. HE WAS A LIGIT [sic] RACIST, HOMOPHOBIC, TRANSPHOBIC, nasty person. Plus he said out his damn mouth ‘people should die in order for us to protect the second Amendment.’ Well Charlie? You reap what you sow,” Woods apparently posted to Facebook. 

Republican state Sen. Tan Parker denounced the violent rhetoric and said members of the public should report such hatred and glorification of violence from educators to officials.

“Texas educators are held to a higher standard — any teacher celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk has no place in our schools,” Parker wrote on X. “Our children deserve classrooms led by men and women of integrity and decency — not by those who give voice to hatred and glorify violence.”

Fort Worth City Councilwoman Elizabeth Beck posted an Instagram story mocking Kirk just hours after his death, as The Dallas Express also reported. Some students at the University of North Texas also celebrated the assassination and watched a video of Kirk’s shooting in the classroom.

A Violent Trend

Kirk’s alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, allegedly left spent casings on the ground near the shooting with far-left messages. These included “Bella Ciao” – the Antifa fight song, and “hey fascist! catch!” As The Dallas Express previously reported, Robinson was reportedly living with, and having a “romantic relationship” with, a “transgender” partner.

This is just the latest instance of violence linked to “transgender” terror and far-left ideology. 

In August, a man who “identified” as a woman committed a shooting against Catholic kids in Minneapolis – killing two, and wounding 17, as The Dallas Express reported at the time. He apparently wrote disturbing messages on ammunition magazines, like “Kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your God?” 

This was similar to a 2023 attack, where a “transgender” shooter killed three children and three adults at the Covenant Presbyterian Church and School in Nashville. The assailant was a biological female who “identified” as male, and her manifesto revealed an obsession with gender ideology.

In July, members of an Antifa cell – several of whom were “transgender” – ambushed an ICE facility outside Fort Worth, as The Dallas Express also reported. One suspect allegedly shot a police officer in the neck, and later confirmed that far-left motives spurred the attack.

Just months before his murder, Kirk described this growing trend as “assassination culture.”