JEFFERSON COUNTY — An educational aide has resigned after posting a comment celebrating the death of far-right political figure Charlie Kirk on social media.
In a since-deleted statement, the said the employee resigned and that the comment on her personal Facebook account did “not align with the mission of our district.â€
The Facebook account of the aide, Rachel Taylor, appears to have been deleted, but screenshots showed Taylor commented on another person’s post that she was “having a glass of wine in celebration†in reference to Kirk’s death.
Attempts to reach Taylor through numbers listed in public records were unsuccessful. She worked at Pevely Elementary, according to Dunklin R-5’s latest student .
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Matt Lichtenstein, communications coordinator for the district, told the Post-Dispatch on Monday the comment brought swift backlash from the Dunklin community and beyond. He said the district decided to say something after receiving several messages after Taylor made her comment on Thursday.
School officials posted a statement on Saturday that was viewed over 120,000 times, Lichtenstein said. They later deleted it.
“We wanted to share information with our online community, and the post more than accomplished that task,†the district stated Sunday.
Several angry commenters advocated for Taylor’s firing.
“Celebrating the death of another human being is sick and disgusting,†Zachary Thomas, who identified himself as a parent, . “As parents, why would we want to send our children to a school where teachers think this is appropriate?â€
Taylor is now one of an increasing number of professionals who’ve faced scrutiny for their reactions to Kirk’s death. Workers across the country, from to a , have been fired for speaking positively about his assassination.
Kirk was shot and killed Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University.
He was known for his inflammatory rhetoric on race, religion, and women’s education, but earned a national platform after founding Turning Point USA, a nonprofit centered on igniting young conservatives to vote.
Dunklin R-5 Superintendent Clint Freeman said in an interview Monday that Taylor’s comments violated the district’s policies for staff conduct. He cited one policy that obligates staff to maintaining positive relations, and another that bars employees from representing their personal opinions as the opinions of the district.
Freeman said the latter came into play because Taylor’s Facebook profile identified her as a paraprofessional at Dunklin R-5. Taylor worked for the district for about five years, he said.
He said Taylor’s departure was not “political.â€
“Part of my job as superintendent is to make sure I have a good pulse on the community and what they would tolerate and allow,†Freeman said. “This definitely was something they would not. It was more about condoning the assassination of an individual. That’s never going to be appropriate for any school personnel to talk about on social media or anywhere.â€
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