A Texas teachers union sued the state’s education department on Tuesday, accusing it of an improper “wave of retaliation” against public school employees over their social media comments following the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
The lawsuit says the free speech rights of teachers and other school staff were violated by the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner, Mike Morath, because they directed local school districts to document what the education agency described as “vile content” posted online after Kirk’s fatal shooting in September.
Despite calls for civility, some people who criticized Kirk after his death have drawn backlash from Republicans seeking to punish anyone they believe dishonored him.
The lawsuit says the education agency received more than 350 complaints about individual educators that could subject them to investigation. It cites the cases of four unnamed teachers — one in the Houston area and three in the San Antonio area — investigated over social media posts critical of Kirk or the reaction to his death.
The Houston-area teacher was fired while the San Antonio-area teachers remain under scrutiny, according to the lawsuit, which seeks a court order preventing current or future investigations.
The Texas American Federation of Teachers, which represents about 66,000 teachers and other school employees, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Austin.
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“A few well-placed Texas politicians and bureaucrats think it is good for their careers to trample on educators’ free speech rights,” Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said in a statement. “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.”
The education agency said it could not comment “on outstanding legal matters.”
The lawsuit comes less than month after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both conservative Republicans, announced a partnership with Turning Point USA, the right-wing group Kirk founded, to create chapters on every high school campus in the state. The Associated Press sent emails seeking comment to the governor’s office and Turning Point USA, which are not named as defendants in the suit.
Morath told school superintendents in a Sept. 12 letter that some social media posts could violate Texas educators’ code of ethics and said “each instance will be thoroughly investigated.”
The lawsuit argues that the letter amounts to an overly broad state policy that allows for arbitrary and inconsistent enforcement. Federal courts have ruled that such vague policies can violate the First Amendment because they risk chilling protected speech.
According to the suit, the Houston-area teacher posted that “karma played a role” in Kirk’s death. The San Antonio-area teachers, the suit says, criticized the outrage over Kirk’s killing compared with reactions to other violence, challenged his positions on immigration, or criticized comments that Kirk’s detractors say were racist, anti-immigrant or misogynist.
The lawsuit said none of the teachers’ posts celebrated or promoted violence, which Morath said wouldn’t be protected speech.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said government employees retain First Amendment protections when speaking as private citizens on matters of public concern, which must still be weighed against an employer’s interest in workplace order. In a 2006 decision, the court ruled that speech made as part of an employee’s official duties is not protected in the same way.
Kirk was an unabashed Christian conservative who often made provocative statements about politics, gender and race. He founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and built it into one of the country’s largest political organizations, shaping a generation of young people by taking his conservative message onto college campuses. He was shot during such an appearance at a university in Utah.
