Florida’s education commissioner is taking steps to identify and sanction teachers who have posted what he calls “despicable comments” about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Leon School Superintendent Rocky Hanna calls these efforts a First Amendment violation.
Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas sent a letter to the state’s superintendents last week, directing them to forward it to all instructional staff. He says he’ll be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in this “vile, sanctionable behavior.”
Leon School Superintendent Rocky Hanna calls the letter’s tone threatening.
“Who was going to be the judge and the jury? Who was going to determine if something was appropriate or across the line? Him?" Hanna laughed. "Or the Board of Education? I don’t know. We’re in a different time now. We just are. It’s more of a threatening than a supporting, and the Department of Education should be there to support public schools throughout the state of Florida. And now they’ve just become the Gotcha Police.”
The Leon Classroom Teachers Association says it’s making sure its members are aware of the letter, and how the state is interpreting speech and conduct outside of the classroom.
“They’re constantly looking at social media posts, looking at newspaper clippings and calling – either to put me in a compromising position as superintendent or our teachers in a compromising position as classroom teachers," Hanna said. "And it’s uncalled-for. There’s no reason for it. Change can’t come soon enough.”
In the wake of Kirk’s death many public employees in Florida and other states have been fired or suspended for their comments about Kirk’s killing.
