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The consequences were delivered with remarkable speed once the video surfaced of a teacher at Texas A&M University talking about a book with a nonbinary character. The class was studying children's literature, and a student confronted the instructor over whether the discussion of gender was legal.
A day after a video of the exchange began circulating, the instructor was fired, the department head and dean were removed from their posts, and the Justice Department said it would look into the matter. Ten days later, as cries from the right continued to echo across the internet, the university president said he was resigning, bringing the tenure of a retired four-star general to an unexpected and abrupt halt.
Now the state lawmaker who led the campaign against them says he's being inundated with tips about what he characterized as offensive efforts to indoctrinate students. "This is just the start," Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison, a conservative firebrand, told The Post. "I hope this puts the fear of G od into every university president and chancellor in Texas."
The resignation of a president at one of the nation's largest universities is the latest example of the immense pressure educators are facing - from elementary schools through to college - over lessons and speech.
Over the past several years, conservatives have focused on reshaping teachings of race, gender identity and sexual orientation, leading to a spate of state laws regulating what educators can say and to the firing of a number of teachers. That campaign mushroomed this month as conservatives pushed to oust people they say have gone far in criticizing Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was fatally shot at Utah Valley University last week.
In Tennessee, Cumberland University said last week an English professor and a staff member were no longer employed by the school after making "inappropriate comments on the internet" about Kirk. The University of California at Los Angeles put an employee on immediate leave for allegedly celebrating Kirk's death on social media and launched an investigation this week. And teachers and school staff have been fired across Texas because of comments made about Kirk's shooting, a half dozen in the Houston area alone, but also in South Texas, the Panhandle and West Texas.
"There's always been intense interest in what teachers say in and outside of the classroom," said Robert Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center, a left-leaning legal advocacy group. "I do think there's been an uptick in the desire to regulate teachers' speech that has arguably shrunk the zone of teacher free speech."
Teachers are hardly alone. ABC indefinitely suspended late night host Jimmy Kimmel for comments related to Kirk, spurring cries of censorship. Vice President JD Vance said anyone "celebrating Charlie's murder" should lose their job. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed to crack down on "hate speech," though she later walked those comments back.
The scrutiny of teachers has not always come from conservatives. In the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020, teachers across several states were disciplined or fired for what were seen as insensitive or offensive racial remarks. And a Virginia teacher was fired for refusing to use a transgender student's pronouns.
But today the scrutiny is decidedly from the right, is being encouraged by senior government leaders and shows no sign of abating.
Texas has been a particular nexus of teacher scrutiny of both college professors and K-12 teachers.
In the wake of Kirk's killing, the state schools superintendent urged the public to report teachers who post "reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media." Florida's schools chief did something similar, vowing that such educators would be "held accountable" and declaring there are limits to their First Amendment rights.
So far, the Texas Education Agency has received 281 complaints about teacher comments in the wake of Kirk's killing, with staff still reviewing them, spokeswoman Jake Kobersky said Friday. He said the agency had not yet sanctioned any of these teachers, though some districts have acted and the state might step in as well.
At the same time, conservative advocacy groups are monitoring teachers to be sure they comply with new state laws that limit how teachers talk about topics including race, gender identity, sexual orientation and gender identity, said Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of government relations at the conservative advocacy group Texas Values.
For instance, Castle said, her group is monitoring teachers at Austin public schools, which she said were "an inspiration for this law" because she said they sponsor Pride weeks and post LGBTQ+ signs and memorabilia in their classrooms.
The surge in discipline follows years of complaints by conservatives that their voices were being silenced, particularly on college campuses.
For many years, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression defended conservatives who said their speech was suppressed. The group agreed with a chorus of conservatives who decried cancel culture and an intolerance to alternative views.
Now FIRE is defending people on the left who are under attack from many of the same people who once demanded free expression. "It just shows a lack of principle about what free speech means and why it's important," said Zach Greenberg, faculty legal defense counsel at FIRE.
He said FIRE has heard from professors in South Dakota, Montana, New York, California and Florida - all concerned that their speech was being restricted. "It seems to be a national phenomenon," he said.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said she sees no end in sight to the scrutiny of teachers' speech. Kirk's killing was horrible, she said, but does not justify going after teachers who have a diversity of opinions.
"This tragedy is being used to create broad-based censorship and to create a chilling effect on the people who are really trusted in society," she said in an interview Friday. She said her union will defend teachers who are disciplined or fired for comments about Kirk, just as it did for those accused of insensitive comments regarding Floyd.
"I don't like hate speech but my obligation is to try and convince people that hate speech is wrong, not that the government can censor hate speech," she said.
Some of the teachers are pushing back.
At Texas State University, a history professor was fired this month for allegedly inciting political violence in remarks at a socialism conference captured on video. This week, the professor, Thomas Alter, filed a lawsuit arguing the administrators retaliated against him for political, protected speech.
Students and free speech advocates have rallied to his defense, with more than 2,700 people signing a union petition calling on the university to reinstate Alter. An edited video showed Alter suggesting that the United States be overthrown because it is "the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven, mad organization in the history of the world." In his lawsuit, Alter argues his comments were taken out of context.
"This is a part of a general trend of higher education being under assault," Alter said Friday.
At Texas A&M, the university president, Mark A. Welsh III, stepped down voluntarily amid the pressure. But the instructor who taught the book with a nonbinary character has hired an attorney and is appealing her dismissal.
University officials said the instructor was fired because she included material in the course that did not align with "any reasonable expectation of standard curriculum for the course" and did not match the course description. The teacher's lawyer said that the content was consistent with the description and that she had never been asked to change it.
Her case was publicized by Harrison, the state legislator, who said he was alerted by a student. A graduate of A&M himself, Harrison said he was surprised to learn of the course given A&M's reputation as a conservative school.
"I wanted people to see that if one state rep can cause enough outrage to force a university president out of his job, other presidents will take note," Harrison told The Post on Friday.
"I view it as an early and decisive victory in a massive campaign," he said. "I'm not going to stop until every state university and agency stops engaging in DEI and transgender indoctrination."
Threats like this have other professors on edge.
Leonard Bright, a professor of public service and administration at Texas A&M, said he was already worried about running afoul of Texas's restrictive laws and policies because he teaches about topics such as the history of slavery, workplace diversity and inclusivity. Now one classroom lesson caught on video has brought down the school's president, and he said he worries that more faculty will be brought down by politicians who don't agree with their teachings.
"There was a day when academia was respected as a place where students could learn different perspectives," Bright said in an interview. "Now it has become a battleground some want to use to advance their own political agendas."
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