Texas cracked down on teachers for posts about Charlie Kirk, union lawsuit says

A Texas teachers union has sued the state’s education department accusing it of a “wave of retaliation” over social media comments about Charlie Kirk.

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 was fatally shot in September.

Despite calls for civility, some people who criticized Kirk after his assassination faced a backlash from Republicans who saw them as dishonoring him, leading to firings by universities, sports teams and media companies. Florida’s education commissioner also promised to investigate teachers over objectionable comments.

The lawsuit says the Texas agency has received more than 350 complaints about individual educators, and the agency said Tuesday that 95 investigations remain open.

Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, alleged that the state clearly demonstrated it is trying to police speech that offends Morath because it hasn’t given similar directives after mass shootings or other violence, such as the killing of actor-director Rob Reiner.