Texas Teacher Union sues TEA over investigations into Charlie Kirk posts
A union representing educators across Texas is suing the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner as the state investigates complaints about educators’ comments on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Texas AFT announced the federal lawsuit on Tuesday after Commissioner Mike Morath said in a September letter said that the agency would investigate teachers who posted or shared “reprehensible and inappropriate content” after Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
The investigations “unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers” for posts made outside the classroom, according to the lawsuit. It argues that in doing so, teachers had their freedom of speech rights violated.
“Somewhere and somehow, our state’s leaders lost their way,” Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said in a statement. “A few well-placed Texas politicians and bureaucrats think it is good for their careers to trample on educators’ free speech rights. They decided scoring a few cheap points was worth the unfair discipline, the doxxing, and the death threats targeted at Texas teachers. Meanwhile, educators and their families are afraid that they’ll lose everything: their livelihoods, their reputations, and their very purpose for being, which is to impart critical thinking.
A spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency said the agency cannot comment on outstanding legal matters.
Of 354 complaints received, 95 remain open and are still being reviewed and investigated, the spokesperson said in an email.
The other complaints have been closed after review, and no sanctions have been issued by the State Board for Educator Certification, the spokesperson said. The board “oversees all aspects of the preparation, certification, and standards of conduct of public school educators,” according to its website.
Each complaint doesn’t represent an individual educator. For instance, some educators received multiple complaints and some complaints were general commentary, the spokesperson said.
The lawsuit states that “Texas AFT members have been placed on administrative leave, reprimanded, and even in some cases terminated for expressing their views.”
The spokesperson said any “employment actions” referenced were made by individual school systems.
A list of districts where employees received complaints was not immediately available. The Star-Telegram has requested the information through an open records request.
The lawsuit references four unnamed teachers in the Houston and San Antonio areas.
In the September letter, Morath said some educators had made posts that may violate the Educators’ Code of Ethics.
“While the exercise of free speech is a fundamental right we are all blessed to share, it does not give carte blanche authority to celebrate or sow violence against those that share differing beliefs and perspectives,” Morath said.
The lawsuit states that comments from AFT Texas members did not “sow, encourage, or incite violence in any way.”
The union is asking that the court block the Texas Education Agency retract its policy about posts in the aftermath of Kirk’s death and issue a new one. The agency should also end all related investigations.
AFT Texas held a Tuesday news conference in Austin following the lawsuit announcement. AFT National President Randi Weingarten said the group and its Texas chapter denounces violence, including Kirk’s assassination.
Morath’s actions were “a transparent effort to smear and shame educators,” Weingarten said.
“To divide our communities and deny our kids the opportunities to learn and thrive,” she continued. “They were a state-sponsored attack on teachers because of what these educators were saying not in classrooms, but privately in their own social media pages, as human beings trying to themselves deal with what they had just seen.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 3:23 PM.
