Wake schools face calls to fire teacher who said Charlie Kirk should ‘rot in hell’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wake Schools face calls to fire teacher over critical Facebook post on Kirk
- Supporters cite First Amendment rights; opponents argue code of ethics breach
- District urges social media caution; no disciplinary action taken as of 2025
A Wake County high school teacher drew both condemnation and support at Tuesday’s school board meeting after he wrote on social media that assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk should “rot in hell.”
Some speakers called on the Wake County school system to fire Millbrook High School teacher Idris Abdul-Aziz for the comments he posted on his personal Facebook page. They’re part of efforts around the country targeting people who have said anything critical online about Kirk since he was fatally shot last week while speaking at a Utah college.
“Mr. Abdul-Aziz is not fit to be a teacher at Millbrook High School, never mind be a department chair,” said Diane Chandler, a Wake County parent.
But other speakers said Abdul-Aziz’s First Amendment free speech rights shouldn’t be limited.
“We ask and expect staff to lay down their lives for our children,” said Jen Smith, a Wake parent. “So to then threaten them if they do not mourn an influencer’s death the same as they have mourned teachers and students who were shot in school shootings begs the question of whose lives are ranked more important.”
Wake says it’s following the law on teacher’s comments
Abdul-Aziz, the humanities department chair at Raleigh’s Millbrook High School, is among a number of educators who took to social media to question the public outpouring of sympathy for Kirk after his death. Kirk’s rhetoric was often inflammatory. He spoke against affirmative action and LGBTQ rights; he called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “awful” and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a “huge mistake.”
“Black people stating ‘RIP’ for a Bigot White Supremest is crazy talk,” Abdul-Aziz said in a Facebook post on Thursday. “This dude lived to talk (expletive) about you and yours. What did he say about Black Women again? Let his ass ‘RIH’ Rot in Hell!!!!”
Abdul-Aziz, who has not returned emails from The News & Observer requesting comment, ended his post with a crude obscenity. The post was public until Abdul-Aziz removed it from his Facebook page Friday morning.
Wake sent a memo Friday to school employees urging them to be careful of what they post on social media. But unlike some other districts, Wake has not suspended Abdul-Aziz over his remarks.
“There is a clear balance for me between what happens in our classrooms, what happens in our community and how our Constitution governs that,” Wake County Superintendent Robert Taylor said during Tuesday’s board meeting. “Regardless of what we may feel individually and personally as a board, we will always side on what the law allows us to do and it doesn’t allow us to do.”
Teachers around US being punished for Kirk comments
In contrast to Wake, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that 100 teachers will “have their teacher certification suspended and be ineligible to teach in a Texas public school’ due to their comments about Kirk.
Similar disciplinary action is happening to teachers in North Carolina and other states.
While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public school employees retain their First Amendment rights to comment or reflect on issues of public concern or debate, they can be censured for speech that is so inflammatory it interferes with their effectiveness as public workers, Education Week reported.
Teacher ‘does not belong anywhere near children’
Critics of Abdul-Aziz accused him of violating the school board’s Code of Ethics with his comments.
“Adults employed to educate and influence our children must be held to a high moral and ethical standard,” said Becky Lew-Hobbs, chair of the Wake County chapter of Moms for Liberty. “Celebrating murder and assassination is neither ethical nor moral, and anyone who does this does not belong anywhere near children. Yet this board approves of Wake County school employees celebrating murder and assassination.”
Chandler, the Wake parent, said it didn’t matter that Abdul-Aziz made his comments on his personal Facebook page because the post was still public.
“He did not show integrity or respect,” Chandler said. “He is not a positive role model for his students. He has shown a severe lack of character. He demeaned and insulted others online and used crude language.”
Some board members say comments were ‘vile’
The school board’s two conservative members also weighed in on Kirk’s death, saying it’s “mentally unsettling to celebrate one’s death.”
“You think he should rot in hell?” said school board member Cheryl Caulfield. “You think he should deserve this nightmare? His family and children deserve this?”
Caulfield didn’t mention Abdul-Aziz by name but said “while we have freedom of speech, it does not mean freedom from consequence.”
Board member Wing Ng also didn’t mention Abdul-Aziz by name. But Ng said the “vile” comments on social media from critics are “like Charlie Kirk was being assassinated over and over again.”
“People all over the country, and even here in our own Wake County, are spending time being keyboard warriors from the comfort of their own homes,” Ng said. “But in the era of social media, nothing that you post is truly private. Your words and thoughts are for all the world to see.”
The other board members were silent Tuesday on the comments about Kirk’s death.
Teachers ‘should not be fired’ for words outside of school
Defenders of Abdul-Aziz and other teachers who have criticized Kirk said their comments were justified
“You are under no obligation to take the feigned outrage of the Moms for Liberty seriously,” said Wake parent Renee Sekel. “The people who will stand up here and perform shock and outrage that people were insufficiently reverent of a bigot who himself traded in hate speech consistently.
“You don’t have to do it. Our teachers have First Amendment rights and they should not be fired for the words that they speak outside of school.”
Smith, the Wake parent, pointed out that Kirk’s death wasn’t the only school shooting that day. Two students were shot at a Colorado high school
“Doxxing people who put up an influencer’s own quotes while ignoring another school shooting that happened within minutes of the first one seems disingenuous to me,” Smith said. “It seems political in nature.”
The school board meeting came a day after Durham city leaders came to the defense of Police Chief Patrice Andrews for her comments criticizing Kirk. Andrews, who has since deleted her post from her personal Facebook page, also has faced calls to resign after saying Kirk “shamed Black women like me,” among other comments.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Wake schools face calls to fire teacher who said Charlie Kirk should ‘rot in hell’."
CORRECTION: Charlie Kirk called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “awful” and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “a huge mistake.” An earlier version of this story misstated his comments.
