Teachers union sues Texas Education Agency over investigations into Charlie Kirk posts

(CN) — A Texas teachers union filed a First Amendment lawsuit Tuesday, challenging a Texas Education Agency policy requiring school districts to report teachers to the agency for investigation for “inappropriate” social media posts regarding the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Days after Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath sent a letter to Texas superintendents saying he was referring teachers who made “vile” posts on social media about Kirk’s death to the TEA’s Educator Investigations Division, asserting that such posts could constitute violations of the Texas Educators’ Code of Ethics. The commissioner’s letter did not name the teachers he was referring for investigation or specify what content he found objectionable.

Morath went on to say that superintendents who “are made aware of additional instances of inappropriate content being shared” should report it to the TEA.

In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers claims Morath’s letter puts forth an unconstitutional policy targeting teachers for protected speech made on their personal social media accounts, even when such speech does not impact the classroom environment.

The union also claims the TEA is engaging in viewpoint-based speech restriction by “targeting expressions with which the TEA commissioner disagrees.” The union notes the agency did not issue similar letters regarding school personnel who posted about the assassinations of Democratic Minnesota lawmakers in July 2025 and that, in 2019, Morath overturned the termination of a teacher who was fired for a Twitter post asking President Donald Trump to remove “illegal students” from her school district.

“The TEA appears to mandate investigations only for school personnel voicing criticism of the commissioner’s preferred political figure,” the union writes.

Texas AFT further argues the policy is overbroad and unconstitutionally vague, as it does not clearly define what constitutes “inappropriate” content. The union seeks an injunction compelling Morath and the TEA to retract the policy and terminate all investigations referred to the agency regarding posts about Charlie Kirk since Morath’s letter was disseminated.

“Simply being under investigation negatively impacts an educator’s reputation, requires resource expenditures for legalrepresentation, and can have lasting detrimental impacts on an employee’s long-term employment prospects, even outside of the education arena,” Texas AFT writes in its complaint.

Furthermore, if a teacher is found to have engaged in misconduct, they could experience a sanction, including having their teaching certificate revoked, which would mean “the destruction of a career in education,” the union writes.

The TEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Texas AFT claims Morath’s letter “unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers based on their First Amendment-protected speech,” claiming that over 350 public school teachers have been reported to or are under investigation by the TEA as a result of the letter.

The lawsuit details several examples of teachers the union says have experienced professional consequences for their posts about Charlie Kirk following the dissemination of Morath’s letter. In one case, a Houston-area teacher was fired and referred to the TEA for investigation over statements she made on Facebook suggesting “karma” played a role in Kirk’s death. Texas AFT asserts that her firing occurred after a politician used her posts in his election campaign and encouraged his supporters to call for her dismissal. In other cases described in the complaint, teachers were disciplined and referred for investigation over posts criticizing Kirk’s statements about Black Americans and his stance on immigrants, as well as for posts criticizing the public response to Kirk’s death compared to other acts of violence like school shootings.

“Texas AFT denounces violence in every form, whether it is children killed in mass school shootings or a public figure like Charlie Kirk being shot and killed,” the union writes. “Free speech under the First Amendment, however, is a fundamental right in a democratic society, and nonviolent speech, even when others strongly disagree with it, is protected.”