A Barrington, Rhode Island, teacher was placed on leave after a social media post commenting on the death of Charlie Kirk. This resembles a pattern across the country: Educators are being let go en masse for speaking their truths.
What’s being punished is not hostility, but the refusal to perform sympathy. Not feeling sadness for a fascist is not immoral; in fact, history shows the opposite. Throughout time, figures similar to Kirk have arisen, their deaths often greeted with relief. Yet today, teachers are reprimanded for saying anything about Kirk unless it solely expresses sympathy.
Notably, this demand for pity is not neutral; it reflects white selective empathy. Those defending Kirk are overwhelmingly white conservatives who have never lived under the violent oppression his politics encouraged. School shootings are ignored–one even happened on the same day Kirk was assassinated, with little media coverage–while Black and brown communities targeted by ICE are celebrated, and LGBTQ rights are stripped away. The double standard is apparent, and it reveals whose lives are deemed worthy of compassion.
Teachers, however, see and live these consequences every day in their classrooms, and they cannot and should not be forced to stay quiet.
Educators have always been on the front lines of social change throughout history. Their own pedagogy demands that they advocate for the people they serve. When those groups are threatened, teachers react accordingly–not out of recklessness, but out of responsibility. That is the strength of the profession, and silencing them actively harms it. Communities deserve to know where teachers stand to feel safe.
Punishing teachers for refusing to mourn an individual bent on harming their communities isn’t justice; it’s selective empathy and goes against the same freedom of speech that Kirk advocated for.
No. You morons were getting people fired a handful of years ago over mask bullshit. Now its your turn to taste your own medicine. ENJOY.
Teachers were getting people fired? Clarify.
You are totally out of your mind. May the God you apparently have no regard for or believes exists, open His Manuel on how to operate the living soul of a man or woman. Without the truth of His word, you are on an eternal seaside mission.
You might want to look up an interview with Mark Lavin and Charlie, and look through the eyes of truth, instead of what the “progressives” look at everything through the eyes of Hate. You are a pawn in a great spiritual battle of good v. Evil, and condoning murder of anyone is simply wrong. You seem to have murder in your heart, and according to your Maker, that makes you as much a murder as the one who pulls the trigger. Matthew 5:21 21 “You have heard that it was said to those [a]of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother [b]without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. I have saved many caught up in sin to repent and turn to the God who loves you, cares about you and wants to save you, like he did me from my sins.
Less preaching, please.