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.
Morath told school superintendents in a Sept. 12 letter that social media posts could violate Texas educators' code of ethics and promised that “each instance will be thoroughly investigated.”
The lawsuit says the agency has 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 — who were investigated over social media posts critical of Kirk or of the reaction to his death. According to the lawsuit, the Houston-area teacher was fired, while the three San Antonio-area teachers remain under investigation.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Austin by the Texas American Federation of Teachers, which represents about 66,000 teachers and other school employees.
The lawsuit said the Houston-area teacher expressed a view online that “karma played a role” in the death of Kirk, a strong advocate of gun rights. It said the San Antonio teachers compared the widespread outrage on the right over Kirk's death to a lack of outrage over other violence, criticized Kirk's positions on immigration or criticized him for comments that his critics considered racist or anti-immigrant.
