Efforts to have people fired from their jobs for criticism of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk are taking hold in the Triangle — and raising questions about whether some firings could be constitutional violations.
One such push is calling for the firing of a Wake County Public School System teacher, who is alleged by parents to have posted about Kirk’s prior comments dealing with race, saying that Kirk could “Rot in Hell.” The post appeared to have been made on his private Facebook page, according to images of the post supplied to WRAL News, which are no longer accessible online.
WRAL News hasn’t independently verified the authenticity of the post. Idris Abdul-Aziz, the teacher tied to the account, remains an active employee in the school system. He didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Charlie Kirk was the cofounder of the nonprofit Turning Point USA, which focused on recruiting young Republicans. He was killed last week when he was shot in the neck at Utah Valley University, according to police. Kirk was in the middle of one of his signature events, which invited students to debate him for exchanges that would ultimately be posted online.
The Wake school system declined to comment, citing state law on personnel confidentiality.
Terminating a public employee for speech on such a major issue would likely violate the First Amendment, legal analysts and speech advocates told WRAL News.
“Generally speaking, a public school teacher in their own time, posting on their social media that's their own personal account about things that aren't related to school, is going to be protected by the First Amendment,” said Adam Goldstein, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy organization.
While private employers have broad discretion in hiring and firing, public agencies have more limits. That’s because the government can’t restrict speech in most cases, attorneys said.
The government can restrict its own speech and the speech of employees who are actively working or representing the government, said Ivy Johnson, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. But it mostly stops there.
“If it's personal speech on a matter of public concern, that is the type of speech that is often afforded the most protections under the First Amendment, alongside political speech,” Johnson said.
That’s even if the agency has a policy governing personal social media use or ethics related to off-campus, off-duty speech.
“If such a policy existed, there would be some serious questions as to its constitutionality,” Johnson said.
Q&A: Can I be fired for a social media post?
In March, a senior planner in the town of Apex left profane phone messages for a state representative after work hours. The town, which declined to discuss the incident at the time, said it had no rules for its employees’ behavior outside of work.
The town “does not place unconstitutional restrictions on an employee’s First Amendment right to engage in free speech that falls outside of their job duties,” a town spokesperson said in an email at the time. “When contact is made using a personal phone, outside of their work hours or during their time off, and outside of their job duties, that employee would be considered as acting as an individual, not on behalf of the town.”
The Wake school system doesn’t have a social media policy that governs personal use, only one that prohibits accessing “social networking sites” from school computers, school networks or during work hours.
In an email to employees before the school year began, the district outlined numerous precautions employees should take when using social media or other communication networks — and suggested possible discipline for personal speech.
“Ideas and opinions employees share online via their personal social media accounts are a direct reflection on our school district,” the email said. “Even when employees’ social media accounts are ‘private,’ it is still possible that their posts could be viewed and shared among students, parents and others in our community. It is important to remember that employees who share inappropriate or offensive content via their personal social media accounts may face disciplinary action.”
Some parents have said the post attributed to Abdul-Aziz, who is in his eighth year in the school system, is unethical.
The post, referring to Kirk, reads in part: "Black people stating ‘RIP’ for a Bigot White Supremest is crazy talk. … What did he say about Black women again?"
One of Kirk's comments about Black women came on Jan. 3, 2024, on his podcast when he said, “If I'm dealing with somebody in customer service who's a moronic Black woman, I don't — I wonder, is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because affirmative action? It almost creates thought patterns that are not necessarily wholesome. It creates resentment, doesn't it? This is not a way to design society.”
Kirk’s comments throughout his career have been spliced for social media posts calling him out or praising his speech since his Sept. 10 death. Kirk was known for trying to bring a conservative voice to campuses that he believed were too liberal.
Kirk's death is the latest in a long list of incidents that have inflamed tensions across the country and gotten people in trouble on social media.
In 2020, after the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, private- and public-sector workers were fired for comments they made.
While many private sector employees are at-will, which means an employer can terminate them for any reason, American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina attorney Ivy Johnson said there is some speech in some instances that is protected.
North Carolina employment lawyer Laura Noble says public employees are protected by the First Amendment.
"No matter how much you disagree with it or agree with it, it is not the government's role according to our Constitution to take action against people who choose to express themselves in a personal way on whatever platform they choose," Noble said.
Goldstein, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression vice president, echoed that sentiment.
"This is where we get into the issue of the Free Speech culture and that we have to sometimes encounter speech that we don't like or that makes us uncomfortable, and that's the price, I guess, of being in a free society,” Goldstein said.
