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Math teachers in Arizona have received death threats after their Halloween costumes were wrongly believed to be mocking the killing of Charlie Kirk. The teachers at Cienega High School in Tucson wore matching blood-stained T-shirts with the words “problem solved” written across them for their costumes, with the images soon being widely shared on social media. Arizona State Representative Rachel Keshel also shared the images on X, claiming her office will “get to the bottom of this.” However, officials at the Vail School District said the costumes were simply meant to be a pun about solving a complex math problem, and not making fun of Kirk, who was wearing a white T-shirt reading “freedom” when he was shot and killed in Utah in September. The teachers wore the same costume last Halloween, which the district also posted on social media. “These shirts were worn both this and last year as part of math-themed Halloween costumes and were not intended as a reference to any person, event, or political issue,” Vail School District Superintendent John Carruth said in a statement, via Tucson.com. As misdirected anger escalated over the weekend, the eight teachers seen in the costumes, as well as their family members, received hundreds of threats by email and phone. One threat, seen by The Washington Post, said: “Your teachers need to be school shooting victims.” In a statement, president of the Arizona Education Association, Marisol Garcia, lashed out at the “bad-faith actors [who] mobilized an online mob” against the math teachers. “We are horrified by the barrage of death threats that followed, and we urge law enforcement to fully investigate all threats and protect the Vail community,” Garcia said, via 13 News. Kolvet later admitted his mistake and posted on X that the teachers did indeed wear the bloody “problem solved” T-shirts last year before Kirk was killed. “That being said, it’s a very weird costume for teachers in general, but after what happened to Charlie, I’m absolutely floored they wore it again,” he posted. “I do not believe for a second that all of them are innocent.” Keshel doubled down on her anger and is demanding evidence that the teachers actually wore the costumes in 2024, despite photos of them existing. “I must firmly reject any attempts to downplay this incident as mere ‘math problem-solving’ attire recycled from last year,” she said in a statement. “Recent alumni, including my daughter, have confirmed these shirts were not worn by any of the math teachers last year. If this is incorrect, I would like proof.”
