Texas AFT sues state over baseless investigations into educators after the assassination of Charlie Kirk

Austin, Texas –  Today, Texas AFT President Zeph Capo and national AFT President Randi Weingarten announced the filing of a federal lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and its commissioner, Mike Morath. Texas AFT is challenging TEA’s unlawful investigations into educators’ protected First Amendment activity in the days following last September’s assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The lawsuit asserts that TEA’s September 12 letter “unleashed a wave of retaliation and disciplinary actions against teachers” based on their First Amendment protected speech made outside of the classroom and their official duties. In the months since, Texas AFT members have been placed on administrative leave, faced reprimands, and even been terminated for social media posts about this matter of public concern. The “impermissibly vague, overbroad” TEA policy chills educators’ protected speech and could have “lasting detrimental impacts” on an educators’ employment prospects.

“Somewhere and somehow, our state’s leaders lost their way. 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,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT. “Educators don’t give up their constitutional rights when they get their first teaching job. We look forward to defending our members and making our case in court.”

Read the full complaint here

“Educators devote their lives to meeting the needs of every child. They need resources, support and clarity, not blaming and shaming, not star chambers and not state-run snitch lines,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Sadly, Texas officials, unlike their colleagues in Utah, decided to exploit the tragedy of Mr. Kirk’s senseless murder, rather than deescalate. Their actions are a transparent effort to smear and shame educators, divide our communities, and deny our kids opportunities to learn and thrive. They are a state-sponsored attack on teachers because of what they thought were private comments to friends and family. And even if we think some of this speech is noxious, defending one’s right to speak is the essence of our democracy. You don’t lose your constitutional rights when you decide to become a teacher—the Constitution, for it to have any meaning at all, has to work for all Americans, not just some. Teachers pour their heart and soul into their work with kids. They should be judged on that work, not some culture war that exploits horrific violence for political ends.”

Today at 1:30pm CT, Texas AFT President Zeph Capo and National AFT President Randi Weingarten will hold a press conference, livestreamed on the AFT YouTube channel, on the lawsuit at the Texas AFL-CIO building in Austin.Check out the advisory here.

The Texas American Federation of Teachers represents 66,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.