Oskaloosa school board fires teacher over controversial Charlie Kirk post

The Oskaloosa School Board has unanimously voted to fire art teacher Matthew Kargol over a controversial post on his social media account appearing to praise conservative activist Charlie Kirk's death. The decision was made at a special meeting Wednesday night.

The firing comes as dozens of employers across the country have come under fire over employees' controversial social media posts regarding Kirk's assassination at an event at Utah Valley University.

Oskaloosa is one of multiple K-12 districts in Iowa — also including Creston and Des Moines — that are reviewing posts made by employees and navigating the balance between free speech rights and potential policy violations. Earlier on Wednesday, the Iowa Board of Regents also instructed the state's public universities to place employees on leave while they investigate social media posts made in relation to Kirk's death.

Kargol, the Oskaloosa art teacher, allegedly shared a post on his personal social media account saying "1 Nazi down" shortly after Kirk's death was announced last week. Later that same day, the district announced they were investigating the matter. The next day, the district confirmed the teacher was placed on administrative leave.

After a closed session with Kargol Wednesday, the school board held a public vote terminating his contract with the district. Mike Fisher, superintendent of Oskaloosa Schools, told reporters after the meeting that the board moved as fast as legally possible on the matter.

"I can say, according to Iowa law, this was as fast as we could move," he said. "You cannot move faster than five days, and we had five days in this so we moved as expediently as we could while honoring the rights of all people involved."

Last week, Fisher had said the school was contacted over a thousand times about the teacher's post, mostly from people outside of the community. Asked why he felt compelled to push for the teacher's termination, Fisher said the decision came down to the facts. He said the teacher's speech violated district policy and caused a disruption in the school environment.

"It's really not about a push," he said. "It's about our investigation and finding a fact and policy. Through our investigative pieces, we just go where the investigation takes us, and we apply to our policies and look through legal facts with our legal counsel and make the best recommendation based on policy, law and our vision, culture."

Isabella Luu

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Iowa Public Radio

Community reacts to teacher's firing

Dozens of people attended the meeting Wednesday, although there was no public comment based on school policy for special meetings. After the vote, school board president Kathy Butler thanked law enforcement for providing additional security and asked community members to "continue to extend grace and hope and be the good in the community."

James Feudner, 50, of Oskaloosa, said he's running for school board and was one of the community members who alerted the superintendent to the post. He said he agreed with the superintendent's recommendation after reviewing district policy, but not with some of the reactions of the community members.

Feudner said he knows Kargol's family and feels bad about the situation, calling it "a lapse in judgement."

"When you're in a small town, everybody knows who you are, so when you go out and say statements everybody knows you're the teacher in town, and when you're representing the school you just can't say stuff like that," Feudner said. "Because unfortunately parents are thinking, 'Okay, if this guy's saying this kind of stuff on social media, what is he telling his kids?'"

Kyle Almond, 30, of Oskaloosa said while he understands Kargol may not have used school devices or time to share the post, people have to be conscientious of what they share on social media in a small community.

Almond said he didn't know who Charlie Kirk was until hearing about his death but said "it was just outrage" when he started seeing the posts about the incident. He said he considers the post extremism, not activism.

"All these people are in public roles — teachers, officials of any caliber — and they're saying this stuff. Everybody knows it's 2025. What you put online, it's not going away," he said.

Lawmakers monitoring local decisions

Rep. Helena Hayes, R-New Sharon, whose district includes Oskaloosa, was also in attendance at Wednesday's meeting.

Hayes said she had many people reach out to her about the teacher's post. While she said the decision over the teacher's termination was best left to the board, she said she shared feedback with the superintendent from constituents calling for the teacher's termination.

"That was not necessarily a recommendation I'm making. I'm sharing with him that we do have a lot of people in this district that are sharing their personal feelings like that with me," said Hayes before the vote.

"Free speech matters, but so does protecting children from possibilities of violence being encouraged in them, [that's] never the correct answer to what's going on, right?" she said. "We never want to incite violence. We never want to promote violence."

Asked about potential future legislation, Hayes said lawmakers will consider if there are any parts of code that need to be tweaked, but said they may conclude laws already in place are sufficient.

"Sometimes that doesn't mean necessarily taking any action," she said. "It could be just everybody better understanding what the current status is of how you proceed, the policies and procedures and it may be just that. So just lots of conversation."

Last week, Fisher said the district was in communication with the governor's office, the Iowa Department of Education and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, whose district includes Oskaloosa.

More districts reviewing posts

Other districts across the state have also been grappling with controversial posts made by employees in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death.

In a post on X last week, the Iowa Department of Education said there are multiple reports of "disturbing comments" about Kirk's assassination allegedly made by school personnel.

"Condoning political or any type of violence is reprehensible and has no place in Iowa education," the post stated. "Our educators are entrusted by families with the care and development of their children. Such behavior does not represent Iowa’s dedicated teachers and should be rejected in the strongest possible terms."

In a message to the district, the Creston superintendent said an employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a review. Charles City Superintendent Brian Burnight told IPR an employee in the district has not been placed on leave but said in a letter to families the district is taking all "necessary actions."

Des Moines Public Schools is also reviewing reports of posts from employees, according to the Des Moines Register.