Public education is a barometer of the state of American society.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the recent assassination of the conservative political activist Charlie Kirk has created a new set of school-related controversies.
Politics and the Schoolroom
While hard figures have never been collected, it is safe to assume that most public school teachers occupy positions on the left or center-left. The same thing can be said for the administrations of many of the nation’s roughly thirteen thousand school districts. Of course, there are conservative teachers and districts, but the nature of state-run education and the makeup of the various university schools of education do incline the entire system to the left side of the political spectrum.
By their nature, schools are also conduits of political information. After all, teaching children how to be productive citizens of their locality, state and nation has always been one of the primary tasks of public education.
If I may be permitted a few brief personal recollections, I still remember the November afternoon when my teacher told our second-grade class that President Kennedy had been shot and killed. A little over twenty years later, I was teaching my seventh-grade civics students when news came of the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. We watched the developing television coverage for the rest of the afternoon. Of course, the bombing of the World Trade Center dominated classroom conversations for weeks after September 11, 2001.
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There were no doubt teachers who had unpopular opinions about all three events. However, in times of national mourning, most were wise enough to keep their opinions to themselves.
A More Controversial World
Three conditions differentiate those catastrophes from the assassination of Charlie Kirk. One is that the nation is far more polarized today than in 1963, 1986 or 2001. Second is the fact that Mr. Kirk clearly identified with the right. Third is the presence of social media. Put those three together and the effect is explosive.
A number of teachers nationwide are discovering just how explosive it can be and the cost of voicing hard-left opinions.
Education Week, the trade paper of American school administrators, is taking notice. A recent article succinctly summarized the position.
Irresponsible Comments
“[T]eachers in California, Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas have been fired or placed on leave ahead of investigations into alleged social media comments critiquing Kirk and implying approval of Kirk’s death.”
Some of the comments are quite vile. A Baltimore high school teacher shared the message “Wrong guy, but we’ll take what we can get.” A teacher at a private non-sectarian school in Miami used a bit of language borrowed from Hindu philosophy when he commented, “He died. Oh well. He ironically promoted gun usage. Karma.” In the Portland area, a middle school teacher opined, “Hearing that Charlie Kirk got shot and died really brightened up my day. Nobody deserves it, but some are asking for it.” An art teacher in Oskaloosa, Iowa, was, apparently, a man of few words, reportedly commenting, “One Nazi down.” There are other instances, but these four convey the point I am trying to make.
Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law
Those who defend these comments do so on the well-plowed ground of the First Amendment’s free speech guarantees. The liberals seem to adopt the position that the things these people wrote are controversial, but, nonetheless, legal. Education Week referred to one of its articles from March 2020.
Constitutional Protections?
“In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of a public school teacher who was fired for publishing a letter to the editor that criticized the school board’s allocation of funds between educational and athletic programs. The decision in Pickering v. Board of Education held that public school employees do not forfeit their First Amendment rights and are able to publicly weigh in on issues of public importance or concern.”
I would argue that this case does not apply to the teachers supporting the murder of Mr. Kirk. Marvin Pickering’s letter criticized the financial policies of his employer. No doubt, others shared Mr. Pickering’s position, and the school board found those opinions inconvenient, but opposing a fiscal policy does not rise to the level of criminal activity.
On the other hand, Mr. Kirk’s murder was clearly an illegal act. While some radicals may believe that public figures who oppose their opinions deserve to be killed, no body of law supports that opinion. At the very least, these people supported a heinous act.
Influence Carries Moral Responsibility
Perhaps more importantly, these people were teachers. Yes, they made their comments outside of their classrooms on a public forum. Nonetheless, at least some of the readers were their students. To the impressionable mind of an adolescent, the fact that a teacher was saying that murder is a permissible way to end a political disagreement carries weight beyond that of someone who does not possess a teacher’s respect and authority.
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No one, least of all me, is going to argue that every student of those teachers will become a murderer. That would be jumping to an unreasonable conclusion. However, let’s feed these opinions into what we know about Mr. Kirk’s alleged assassin.
The details may change as the investigation continues, but as of this writing, the prevailing narrative is that this young man was an honors student from a relatively conservative family. According to reports, he became radicalized only in the last couple of years. The exact process of his leftward swing is, as yet, unknown.
I am not about to say that the assassin was motivated by a teacher’s unguarded comments. Given the current state of the evidence, that would be grossly irresponsible. However, teachers do have a level of influence over their students. Their opinions matter. Teachers without some level of influence over their students are not teachers. At best, they are well-informed babysitters.
It seems plain that those who do not care about the influence that their opinions may carry have no business leading a classroom.
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