MIAMI — Florida teachers are facing investigations for social media posts deemed insensitive after Charlie Kirk’s death — scrutiny that the state’s teachers union says targets even tangential or indirect comments.

First Amendment attorneys warn that the actions against educators may be unlawful and intended to chill free speech under the guise of enforcing professional conduct rules.

Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, said they currently are representing 30 union teachers, staff and professors across Florida who are under fire for social media posts, some of which have nothing to do with Charlie Kirk. One teacher who is under investigation, for example, wrote, “you don’t have to feel empathy for someone that doesn’t have empathy for them.” Spar declined to provide further details into the ongoing investigations.

There are more educators under investigation for posting about Kirk who are not part of their union.

In Miami-Dade alone, eight teachers are currently under investigation for posts parents or administrators flagged as politically-charged, according to the school district. One of them is Mayade Ersoff, a teacher at Palmetto Middle School who told the Herald she wasn’t even sure which post on her social media was flagged to the district or why.

A teacher under investigation

Ersoff is currently under investigation by the district but said she never posted anything negative about Charlie Kirk on social media.

She did, however, re-share a post critical of Florida Department of Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas for his vow to “investigate” educators who post negatively about Charlie Kirk. In a review of her social media, the Herald found that the re-post that encouraged people to “Call (Kamoustsas) and tell him to go to hell and take DeSantis who appointed him on the trip.” The post was originally shared by Marvin Dunn, a former professor and activist.

Ersoff told the Miami Herald that she was leaving the campus one afternoon in September when the principal Alina Valero called her into the office to hand her a letter informing her she was under investigation by the school district.

Valero and representatives from the school district did not respond to questions about the investigation, stating that they cannot speak since it is ongoing.

According to the letter written by the principal and shared with the Herald, the district told Ersoff that “a parent reported that the subject has been posting politically charged information on social media.”

Ersoff says she has not been told what specific post prompted the investigation. Her Facebook account is private, but she often re-shares posts that are critical of the Trump administration. One post read, “Dear UN, Please dismiss him entirely. Sincerely, Most of America.”

A Miami Herald review of Ersoff’s Facebook page didn’t find any posts celebrating Kirk’s death or criticizing him. Ersoff told the Herald that she had not deleted any posts from her social media since the investigation began.

This incident is not the first time Ersoff has been turned in by a parent for her political leanings. Last year, a parent complained about a poster she had displayed in her classroom for more than a decade.

It read: “HERE WE BELIEVE Love is Love + NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL. Black lives matter. SCIENCE IS REAL. Women’s Rights are Human Rights. Water is life. Kindness is Everything.”

She was asked to take it down.

‘Govern yourselves accordingly’

Three weeks ago, Kamoutsas sent a letter to school district superintendents stating that employees can be disciplined and teachers could have their certification revoked if the commissioner “finds probable cause” public comments related to Charlie Kirks death “seriously reduce that person’s effectiveness as an employee of the district school board.”

He signed the letter sent to all superintendents: “govern yourselves accordingly.”

Across the state, dozens of teachers have been placed under investigation for social media posts in the weeks directly after Kirk’s death. A teacher in Martin County was removed from the classroom and placed in a district job. Osceola launched an investigation into four teachers. And in Clay County, a school employee was suspended. There have also been three incidents Lee County.

Some teachers under investigation called Kirk a “racist, misogynistic, fear-mongering neo-Nazi,” and others mentioned Kirk’s past comments where he stated that “some” gun deaths were worth it to maintain gun rights.

There have been two instances of educators having their teaching certificates revoked for posting about Charlie Kirk, according to the Department of Education.

One was in Clay County and the other in Duval County. The administrative complaint against the teacher in Duval County, however, also stated that the teacher “has a history of imposing her personal and controversial views on students even before she became a teacher certified” because she provided students who visited an art exhibit she curated in 2021 with a book called “God is Trans.”

One of the Miami-area teachers who is currently under investigation who posted about Charlie Kirk shared this on her Facebook: “If only you could have done something about better gun control, if only. Oh, well… thoughts & prayers.”

Gabrielle Acosta, community outreach specialist for the school district, did not provide further information, saying the investigation is still open.

School board member Roberto Alonso told the Herald via text that “while everyone has the right to personal opinions, hateful or inappropriate comments have no place in our community or our schools.”

Board member Steve Gallon agreed, stating, “While all individuals, including educators, retain their Constitutional rights to free expression, such expression — particularly on social media— must never cross into the celebration or promotion of political violence, regardless of one’s political alignment.”

Spar said FEA attorneys are questioning the legality of Kamoutsas’ threat to educators. “My understanding is the commissioner’s letter seems to go too far by implying educators’ personal lives and personal opinions expressed outside of work can be used as a way to terminate their teaching certificate in the state of Florida.”

Free speech and limits on teachers’ expression

Legal experts say the investigations may test the boundaries of public employees’ free speech protections.

Sam Boyd, a senior supervising attorney in Florida with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Democracy, Education, and Youth litigation team, said teachers’ speech is generally protected when it takes place outside the classroom and doesn’t disrupt their employer’s operations. For there to be repercussions, it would have to be proven that the speech may disrupt the workplace or harm the employer’s interests. Speech made in an official capacity, such as in a classroom, is not protected, he said.

Boyd called Ersoff’s case concerning because she has not been told which post led to the investigation. “Understanding the charges is an important tenet of due process,” he said.

The Miami-Dade school district has not said how it determines whether a post crosses the line. District spokesperson Elmo Lugo said only that the Florida Department of Education’s guidance, as shared publicly by Kamoutsas, outlines how districts should proceed.

First Amendment attorney Lawrence Walters said that because teachers are public employees, they have stronger constitutional protections than those in private workplaces. “Employees have a right to comment on matters of public concern,” he said. But ultimately, he noted, it is up to the courts to decide whether a particular statement warrants discipline.

A climate of fear

Civil rights groups say the investigations are deepening a sense of fear and self-censorship among educators.

Bacardi Jackson, the executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said, “It is an assault on our constitution, an assault on First Amendment rights and an attempt to silence educators and silence people from having political opinions.”

Boyd said he has heard from many teachers who are concerned about similar attacks, and that he sees these investigations as a part of the “broader effort to assert ideological control over public education.”

The investigations into teachers’ social media posts has created a climate of vulnerability and fear, Boyd said, where both teachers and even students start self-censoring when engaging in public discourse.

Spar told the Herald that this is the first time that he has encountered teachers in the state of Florida being systematically scrutinized for commenting in a derogatory way on a specific topic.

But he also said that as the furor to censor educators or anyone for posting negative comments about Kirk in the wake of his death increased, he was shown several websites parents were using that used AI to comb through teachers’ social media. The sites have since been taken down, he said.

For Ersoff, the experience has felt deeply personal. She sees the investigation as another attempt to police her private speech. “We are supposed to uphold the amendments, and I don’t see that happening, and it terrifies me for the country as a whole,” Ersoff said. “What is the goal here? To suppress speech?”

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