KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

A Tullahoma High School teacher has received a written reprimand after making social media posts regarding the death of political activist Charlie Kirk. The reprimand was announced during this past week’s Tullahoma City Schools Board of Education meeting.

Reports of the posts came earlier this month when screenshots circulated on social media that allegedly showed THS Criminal Justice teacher Monica Blake-Beasley liked and commented on a post that criticized Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking at Harper College in Utah, and he was a “racist, xenophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, white nationalist mouthpiece” who “stood for nothing but hate.” In a separate comment, Blake-Beasley allegedly shared a meme with the caption “FAFO”, which is an acronym commonly known as “f*** around and find out.”

In a statement prior to the meeting, TCS representatives said the school district was aware of concerns from the community about the social media posts, and stated it strongly condemned the act of violence towards Kirk and rejected attempts to downplay his death.

“TCS believes all discussions, even on difficult topics, should be respectful and peaceful,” the statement read. “The teacher’s post was made in her personal capacity, not as a representative of TCS. Still, we understand that there are questions about professionalism.”

“Please know that TCS takes the professionalism of our educators very seriously,” the statement continued. “We are reviewing this matter according to the law and school board policies. Because this involves a personnel issue, we are unable to make any further comments.”

Concerns about both the posts and the school district’s response leaked into the Sept. 23 school board meeting, where over a dozen residents attended to address the school board with their concerns.

To start off the meeting, the school district’s attorney D. Scott Bennett, of Bennett & DeCamp PLLC, addressed the board, and everyone in attendance, and gave a briefing regarding what has been happening during the past week. He said TCS Director of Schools Dr. Catherine Stephens had contacted him about the social media posts. He said when looking at the situation presented, he was looking at the balance of Blake-Beasley’s First Amendment rights to private, political speech versus the impact the speech had on her service in the classroom and public.

Bennett then went over the following week of conversations he had with Stephens about the issue. According to Bennett, Stephens wrote up questions to ask Blake-Beasley in a meeting, where the high school monitored the environment at the school. Bennett said while there were people within the community who had concerns, there was no impact within the school and in the classroom. He added one of the reasons why the school district did not make further comments was to avoid creating disruption as they were assessing the situation and what to do.

He continued and said Stephens then had a meeting with Blake-Beasley and asked her questions about the post, including the level of professionalism. It was during this meeting that both parties agreed that the social media posts were unprofessional. After further discussions, Bennett said Stephens issued a permanent reprimand to Blake-Beasley, which will be in her file. She does have a brief window to respond to it, but it will also be on her record.

“Districts across the state go through this very same analysis, this balancing process, and it’s slow,” Bennett said. “Because you got to be careful, because you can’t make any assumptions. You actually have to look at the impact that the speech has on the school environment, then you might be able to regulate it.”

Following the briefing from Bennett, the school board had anyone who signed up for public comment line up to the podium to address the board with three minutes to speak. One by one, 15 residents addressed the board about the social media posts.

The first to address the board was State Sen. Janice Bowling, who asked the board to look at what was said and done, as there was more of an impact.

“People might not have spoken about it in the high school, which is terrible because if it’s so commonplace there that they wouldn’t comment, but it’s not commonplace for the rest of us, and it has created a firestorm.”

Those who spoke during public comment expressed that the situation should be reevaluated, primarily the impact analysis, and some called for either a harsher punishment or termination, as well as a lack of transparency from the school district. Others also called into question Blake-Beasley’s background as a police officer and her treatment of other students. Jackson Parris, a THS Class of 2024 graduate, said that while he did not have Blake-Beasley’s class, he did hear she allegedly discriminated against others, and that students were being pulled from her class.

“At the high school, we were very preached on how we represented Tullahoma city on social media. It was a thing that was brought up a lot, and how can they tell us how to represent Tullahoma city, but they have an employee who says what they want without having any reparations other than a slap on the wrist?” Parris said to the school board. “People are being pulled out of her class, and I personally won’t want my kids one day to be in her class.”

Yet, resident Katherine Berrientos stated that those who were complaining about Blake-Beasley didn’t know her, and shared that when her daughter was disciplined by Blake-Beasley, she thought it was fair.

“Ms. Blake is an upstanding person,” she said. “I think everybody that wants to go on a witch hunt for her really should get to know her.”

The final person to address the school board was Susan Harris, who said that while what Blake-Beasley did was a mistake, her being fired wouldn’t be what Kirk would have wanted.

 “His number one priority was free speech, and I don’t think he would support her being fired over this simply because he was more interested in changing people’s minds than punishing them for what they thought off the top of their head,” Harris said.

She added that a more corrective measure would be for Blake-Beasley to go take sensitivity training rather than just firing her. She wrapped up her comments by stating it was scary to see how quickly people want to hate and want retribution.

“We know, those of you with faith and those of you who follow Charlie Kirk, you’ll know the fruits of flesh and fruit of the spirit, and you tell me which one hate is under,” she said. “If you’re reacting out of hate, you’re reacting out of the wrong side.”