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Months after the Texas Education Agency received hundreds of complaints against educators accused of posting inappropriate content following the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, a state teachers’ union is suing to stop the agency from launching investigations into the posts.
As first reported by The Texas Tribune, the Texas American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit on Jan. 6 that seeks to bar Education Commissioner Mike Morath and the agency from looking into the posts and requests that the agency better cement First Amendment protections for educators in its policies. The lawsuit claims Morath was responsible for “unleashing a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers” after announcing in September that the TEA would evaluate posts made by educators to determine whether “sanctionable conduct has occurred.”
“A few well-placed Texas politicians and bureaucrats think it is good for their careers to trample on educators’ free speech rights. They decided scoring a few cheap points was worth the unfair discipline, the doxxing, and the death threats targeted at Texas teachers. 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,” said Texas AFT President Zeph Capo in a statement.
The lawsuit includes details on four educators from the Houston and San Antonio areas who faced disciplinary action or were fired for posts about Kirk’s death.
“We are happy that the Texas AFT is being very protective of members when it comes to their constitutional rights,” Alliance-AFT President Rena Honea said in a statement provided to the Observer on Tuesday. “…. We look forward to the outcome because of the action that the TEA and the commissioner have taken with this event. We’ll be watching it like [everyone] to see how the courts rule.”
The TEA received more than 350 complaints spanning 124 school districts. At the time, the Observer reported that 22 districts in North Texas employed at least one educator who was the subject of a complaint. Four of those districts — Allen, Keller, Mesquite and Richardson — told us they were not aware of any active investigations into their employees being underway.
As of Jan. 5, the agency told the Tribune that 95 investigations across the state remained active. AFT’s lawsuit claims that the investigations launched by Morath resulted in inconsistent disciplinary action across school districts and did not align with the agency’s prior enforcement of social media policies or expectations.
“The TEA appears to mandate investigations only for school personnel voicing criticism of the Commissioner’s preferred political figure,” the lawsuit says, adding that educators were not barred from discussing the shooting deaths of Minnesota lawmakers Melissa Hortman or John Hoffman last June.
Some districts did not wait for TEA investigations into the Kirk comments to start. Grand Prairie ISD told the Observer in October that two employees had been placed on leave for emails related to Kirk’s death, but that the educators were reinstated after an internal investigation found the messages “reflected poor judgment” but did not “appear to be an incitement of violence.”
“A report was submitted in compliance with the (TEA) commissioner’s directive regarding mandatory reporting and was not intended as a recommendation for certification sanction. We have had no further communication on this matter from the state,” a statement from the district said.
KERA also reported that at least one “longtime educator” with Dallas ISD had been suspended without pay for commenting on Kirk’s death, but the district declined to comment, citing an inability to speak about personnel matters.
Texas AFT and the organization’s local chapter could not be immediately reached for comment. The Texas Education Agency declined to comment, citing outstanding legal matters.
