{"id":220923,"date":"2025-09-12T13:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T13:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/220923\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T13:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T13:08:16","slug":"houston-area-educators-face-criticism-over-comments-about-death-of-conservative-activist-charlie-kirk-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/220923\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston-area educators face criticism over comments about death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Charlie<\/a><\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Jeffrey Phelps<\/p>\n

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk speaks during a town hall Monday, March 17, 2025, in Oconomowoc, Wis.<\/p>\n

Several Houston-area educators are facing criticism and calls for their dismissal over comments they allegedly made about the Wednesday assassination of Charlie Kirk, a well-known conservative activist and podcaster. <\/p>\n

The comments \u2014 which came in the form of social media posts that have been circulated by right-leaning politicians and pundits \u2014 prompted denouncements from local school districts. <\/p>\n

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed<\/a> at Utah Valley University while speaking during a debate hosted by Turning Point USA, a political student organization he led. On Thursday, authorities recovered a high-powered rifle and released images of a person suspected to be the shooter. <\/p>\n

The shooting represents an act of violence amidst heightened political tensions across the United States in recent months.<\/p>\n

Houston-area state Reps. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) and Terri Leo-Wilson (R-Galveston) took to social media on Wednesday to call for the firing of a teacher at Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District in Baytown. It happened after the teacher reportedly suggested Kirk\u2019s death could have been \u201cthe consequences of his actions catching up with him,\u201d according to screenshots posted on Cain\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called Kirk\u2019s death a \u201cpolitical assassination\u201d and said Wednesday was \u201ca tragic day for our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll bet if the victim had been Black or Brown or a Democratic influencer, [Cox would] have been singing a different tune,\u201d the teacher also wrote on social media, according to the screenshots posted by Cain, who has called out other local educators for allegedly making similar remarks.<\/p>\n

In a memo to families on Thursday, Goose Creek CISD Superintendent Randal O\u2019Brien said the district doesn\u2019t tolerate hateful or violent rhetoric from anyone representing the district\u2019s schools. He said such language is \u201cinconsistent with our mission and has no place in our learning community.\u201d The teacher\u2019s employment status wasn\u2019t immediately clear Thursday. <\/p>\n

Another post that circulated on X in the aftermath of the assassination appeared to be from a substitute teacher in Dickinson ISD who allegedly wrote that Kirk condoned gun violence and \u201cdied in his belief.\u201d The district responded to a flurry of backlash on social media and claimed the post was made by a former substitute teacher who last worked in the district in 2022. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe share in the community\u2019s deep concern and disappointment, and we want to assure our families that we do not condone, endorse or excuse comments of this nature,\u201d Dickinson ISD Superintendent Rebecca Brown wrote in a statement posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brown added that district administrators and staff are \u201cheartbroken and disturbed by the hateful and offensive nature of the comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another statement on Wednesday from Pasadena ISD, also located southeast of Houston, Superintendent Toni Lopez said the school district was made aware of insensitive comments about Kirk\u2019s death that were made by an employee.<\/p>\n

Lopez said the situation was being addressed administratively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Jeffrey Phelps Conservative activist Charlie Kirk speaks during a town hall Monday, March 17, 2025, in Oconomowoc,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":220924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[19719,120289,407,6262,120290,120291,4345,425,50,120292,80,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-220923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-charlie-kirk","9":"tag-dickinson-isd","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-education-news","12":"tag-goose-creek-cisd","13":"tag-greater-houston-area-schools","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-local","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-pasadena-isd","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115191487847335234","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}