Parents across Massachusetts are expressing outrage over teachers and school representatives who they say have made “clearly demonic” social media posts in reaction to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
As concerned citizens and conservative commentators have exposed social media posts from school personnel that appear celebratory of Kirk’s murder, frustration has built amongst Bay State parents and community members.
At least four school districts — Peabody, Framingham, Sharon and Wachusett Regional, which includes the towns of Holden, Paxton, Princeton, Rutland and Sterling — have taken action against teachers in response to posts deemed inappropriate and insensitive.
School committees are starting to hear from concerned residents in their respective communities.
Framingham resident Elaine Lombardo, a mother of two children who graduated from Framingham High School, said a post from a teacher at King Elementary School was “clearly demonic” in response to the conservative activist’s death.
The teacher posted a video, which has since gone viral, of her singing God Bless America before she turned the camera to a television screen with the headline that Kirk had died after being shot.
“Charlie Kirk had the right … to go out and debate on a college campus,” Lombardo said at Wednesday’s School Committee meeting. “It is our First Amendment right to encourage people to critically think, and he was assassinated for that.”
Lombardo pointed out how Kirk died at the age of 31 and was the father to two young children, ages 1 and 3.
“I don’t understand how a person with young children can celebrate the death of a father and work with young children,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense to me, like they shouldn’t be anywhere near children.”
Lombardo’s comments came the same night that parents in Sharon expressed their dismay over a high school teacher who allegedly posted on Facebook shortly after Kirk’s assassination, “Never one to celebrate but so long you piece of (expletive)! Now I’m just pissed that they are making this (expletive) (expletive) a martyr.”
Sharon School Committee Chairman Avi Shemtov warned the public that their comments would be limited to two minutes and had to relate to items on the meeting’s agenda. He added that he was fully aware of the headlines after the teacher’s post.
“I will be muting anyone who veers into speaking about things that are outside of our purview,” Shemtov said, “including personnel items, national politics.”
Shemtov quickly found himself engaging with a community member who identified herself as Casey McLaughlin, who said she was there to “talk about the issue with the staff, so I don’t really know…”
Shemtov responded, “We are not going to entertain comments on the staff.” McLaughlin fired back, “Alright, then go to the next person.”
Fellow resident Mira Belenkiy slammed the School Committee for being “afraid” and “hiding from the public” on what she described as the “most important issue facing the Sharon Public Schools.”
“Deciding not to listen to the public, and not to hear us, on literally the most hot-button issue, the concern that parents have is pretty cowardly,” she said.
Ambrizeth Lima, a resident of the Greater Boston suburb in Norfolk County, supported teachers and their First Amendment rights.
“The same First Amendment that allowed a certain individual to spew out hatred toward people who are different from him,” Lima said, without directly naming Kirk, “is the same First Amendment that protects staff at Sharon Public Schools.”
Medway residents on Thursday followed in voicing frustration over a member of the Medway Education PTO who has compared Kirk’s family to the Ku Klux Klan and been accused of stating, “Violence is always the answer.”
This all comes as the Massachusetts Teachers Association has defended educators who have been suspended for their reactions to the assassination of Kirk, an ally of President Trump.
MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy on Tuesday requested that districts and public colleges and universities be “partners with unions in the fight to defend educators from bullying and harassment and to protect their rights.”
In response, Republican gubernatorial candidates Mike Keneally and Brian Shortsleeve have argued that public employees who appear to celebrate the assassination should be fired, while Gov. Maura Healey called for the political temperature to be lowered.