Sacramento-area school employee investigated for alleged online Kirk comments
A Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District employee is being investigated by district officials for alleged online statements about the targeted killing of conservative activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk.
The employee has been placed on administrative leave while the inquiry continues, officials at the Roseville-based district said in a statement. Officials did not release what was reportedly stated in the post, but in the statement called the comments “unprofessional and concerning.”
The employee has been identified by several news outlets as a middle school teacher at one of its two Roseville middle schools. District officials declined to confirm the employee’s identity or place of employment to a Bee reporter Wednesday.
“The district is aware of an inappropriate post allegedly made by an employee on their personal social media account regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The post is both unprofessional and concerning,” the district’s statement read in part. “The personal comments allegedly made by the employee do not reflect the values, standards, or mission of the district. We are taking this matter seriously and actively investigating.”
Kirk, 31, CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10, while speaking at a debate sponsored by the organization at Utah Valley University in Orem. Kirk rallied young conservatives through his organization and became a close ally of President Donald Trump.
Kirk’s death was quickly condemned by Republican and Democratic lawmakers. His comments, particularly regarding Black and brown Americans as well as transgender and abortion rights, drew controversy. Kirk’s death also renewed debate on free speech rights even as journalists, workers, and, perhaps most visibly, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, were disciplined, suspended or fired for comments in the wake of the shooting.
Kimmel, host of the ABC talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” returned to airwaves Tuesday night after the broadcast network and its parent, the Walt Disney Co., last week announced it was suspending the talk show host “indefinitely” for comments Kimmel made during his monologue Sept 15.
“It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said in his returning monologue Tuesday night, according to the entertainment trade publication Variety.
Trump mourned Kirk as a “martyr for truth and freedom” upon his death, ordered flags lowered to half-staff and spoke at a memorial in Arizona that drew more than 90,000 people.
Kirk’s death was the latest incident in a growing wave of political violence.
Trump narrowly escaped an assassin’s bullet at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July 2024. The attempt on the president’s life left one man dead before the gunman was shot dead by law enforcement. Another assassination attempt was made two months later; the man who fired at Trump in Florida was convicted this week.
A gunman killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband; and wounded a Minnesota state senator and wife in June; and an arsonist was arrested in the deliberate torching of the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion with Gov. Josh Shapiro and family inside. Shapiro and family escaped the flames.
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