Decision made in case of Tri-Cities teacher accused of Charlie Kirk post
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kennewick special education teacher returned to classroom after six-week leave.
- Social media quote after Charlie Kirk’s death set off school district review.
- Community response split: parents decried disruption while others urged termination.
A Kennewick special education teacher is back working after she was pulled from the classroom six weeks ago over a post on her personal Facebook page.
A spokeswoman for the Kennewick School District confirmed Thursday the teacher was no longer on leave. And parents of some special education students told the Tri-City Herald that she resumed teaching.
The Chinook Middle School teacher was on leave while school administrators investigated the posting of a Clarence Darrow quote within a day of the Sept. 10 assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Turning Points USA founder and conservative activist.
The quote, which was wrongly attributed to Mark Twain, said, “I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
The post did not mention Kirk’s name, but many critics said it made light of his murder.
But parents told the Herald at the time that the unnamed teacher’s removal from the class severely disrupted their students’ learning.
Kyle Blodgett, a parent of two children in Kennewick schools who are not in the teacher’s class, praised the school district’s administration in a letter to the editor for doing “the right thing.”
“They followed the course of due process, and thankfully the special needs students now have their teacher back,” he wrote, denouncing the online reaction to the teacher’s post as “cancel culture” stoked by fringe reactionaries.
Many wrote the school board and came to the meetings, calling for the teacher’s firing, but others, like Blodgett, contacted the board concerned about her removal.