⚖️ Debate heats up over free speech, boundaries, and job security for public employees
In the week or so following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, conservative activists have been exposing New Jersey teachers and other professionals for social media posts.
New Jersey Project has been sharing screenshots and identifying information for posts it considers to be justifying or mocking the deadly shooting of the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA.
At least one of the educators has been fired since receiving backlash for online comments.
Rider University adjunct professor Kate Ecke was fired because her "behavior did not reflect our expectations for respectful and civil engagement," The Rider News reported on Wednesday, citing a letter to the campus community from Rider's president.
Ecke made multiple posts -- the first of which read in part, "I don't care that Charlie Kirk got shot. Kids are being slaughtered in their classrooms and the same people crying outrage for him have nothing to say when it's children in body bags. Spare me the hypocrisy."
A separate comment said that Kirk made a "career out of worshipping the Second Amendment," while a different screenshot of a post by Ecke called the slain activist a "small d**k podcaster" and questioned the federal call for U.S. flags flown at half-staff.
New Jersey Project shared Ecke's posts, saying you would think the educator "would be a little more concerned about that the shooting took place in the middle of a college. You'd think she'd be a least be concerned for the college kids safety."
In a separate incident, the New Providence school district said that appropriate action was being taken after a "disturbing" social media post by a teacher, also shared by New Jersey Project, which said a "garbage of a human" had died.
Members of the New Jersey conservative site's social media pages have been taking Kirk-related comments and sharing personal details of the posters since at least Sept. 12 on Facebook, Instagram and X.
"Shawnee High School, your high school teacher is sharing some pretty vile stuff online, what does she share with her kids," one post said.
That shared meme shares empathy for Kirk's children, while calling the slain activist "racist, xenophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, sexist and a white nationalist," who made "millions off inciting hatred" in the U.S.
A West Deptford school teacher's account shared a meme that said "convenient Christians" were mad about a lack of mourning, calling Kirk a "misogynist, racist homophobe."
A school librarian in Ocean Township was exposed for posts that called Kirk a nazi, and another of an illustrated gravestone that said he was "killed by the thing he said was not a problem.
A Rutgers University professor was called out for a comment that said he was not sorry for a "Nazi s**t" who was killed.
He later commented, "It's funny how everyone assumes to know who the post is about." New Jersey Project shared both in a screenshot, saying the professor "thinks this is all some joke."
A Mercer County teacher and board of education member shared that "Charlie Kirk isn't a martyr. He's a casualty of the violence he incited." The same Ewing resident shared a political cartoon, showing Kirk and a bunch of school children, all in heaven after being shot to death, as the children ask, "Was it worth it, Charlie."
New Jersey Project also posted details on a fifth-grade teacher in Rockaway who said "some people have to die, buy bye" on a social media comment about Kirk's defense of the right to own guns in the wake of mass shootings. That teacher has since resigned, the Daily Record reported.
"Be sure to check on your racist friends today, they are upset over something," was another comment the group attributed to a "teacher in Montclair in response to the Charlie Kirk assassination."
Out of Little Egg Harbor, a teacher's sharing of a meme about a drag performer not being as dangerous as a Christian with a gun drew heat.
A Seton Hall University staffer's posts said she had "zero empathy for the violent death of a man who thought our children's lives were a reasonable price to pay for his right to own a gun," and, "If I said being mauled by a bear is the price of freedom, and subsequently I am mauled by a bear, well that's comedy baby."
"And you wonder why your college student turns into radical leftist," New Jersey Project said in response.
A Clark teacher was criticized for a post that said: "As the right is turning Kirk into a martyr, let's remember who he was. He basically had an issue with anyone who was not white and male." It ended with, "I say good riddance."
New Jersey Project said such "flames of hate should not be seen in a high school classroom."
Not all subjects thrown into the public spotlight were teachers or librarians.
A publicly identified nurse had posted a comment that Kirk "should have protected his neck."
A U.S. postal worker's account was also shared, for calling Kirk a "dirtbag" along with voicing anger that taxpayer money was spent on his body being flown aboard the Vice President's plane.
Whether school employees are able to post political or other views on personal social media accounts remains up to guidelines set at the district level.
"While the First Amendment protects speech, such protections are not absolute for public employees," the New Jersey Education Association said in a 2023 entry on its website.
"When your speech negatively impacts your reputation as an educator or that of your school district/employer, it can adversely affect your employment," the state's largest teacher's union added, linking to an "acceptable uses" policy.
In recent years, the New Jersey Project pages have mocked transgender rights and LGBTQ inclusivity in schools as well as criticized anti-racism efforts and vaccination mandates.
"When you send your kid back to school this September remember you are fighting an entire organization that is dedicated to teaching your kids ideologies and political Slants," New Jersey Project said in an August Facebook post.