Last week, a speaker was assassinated on a college quad. Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. Prosecutors have charged a 22-year-old with aggravated murder and say they will seek the death penalty. Charging documents describe political motivation. Classes have resumed under a heavy mood. That is where we are one week later.
The Aftermath: Celebrations Amid Grief
In the days since, another layer of rot surfaced. Students, faculty, and other public-school employees celebrated a political murder. Texas State University expelled a student after a video showed him re-enacting the shooting at a campus memorial. A similar expulsion followed at Texas Tech.
Meanwhile, professors faced swift backlash: an Arkansas law professor was suspended for social media posts celebrating the killing, Clemson University suspended two professors and fired an employee for mocking Kirk's death online, and several California teachers were placed on leave after allegedly cheering the assassination.
Nationwide, educators from K-12 teachers to university faculty have been fired or disciplined for similar posts glorifying the violence. If you draw a public paycheck, you are accountable to the public. Cheering an assassination disqualifies you from positions of civic trust. Words are not violence. Celebrating violence is an endorsement of violence.
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