Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita says Governor Mike Braun's administration has gone more than a year without acting on his office's referrals of 25 educators over social-media posts about Charlie Kirk's killing, and he's now pushing Braun to order a formal license review. Rokita posted the demand on X Monday night, naming two teachers directly and asking why their credentials remain untouched.
Referrals Sent Over a Year Ago, Rokita Says
According to WIBC, Rokita said his office sent the 25 educator referrals to the state more than a year before his latest statement and has repeatedly asked officials to act on them. He wants Braun to direct the Indiana Department of Education to formally review the educators' licenses, framing it as a matter of accountability rather than a new request. Rokita also cited Braun's own support for Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded, as part of his argument that the governor should follow through.
Rokita shared screenshots of Facebook posts attributed to two educators, Brett Maurer and Ashley Russell, and said both still hold active teaching licenses, per the same WIBC report. He called on Braun to make good on a warning the governor issued in September 2025, when Braun said teachers who celebrated or excused political violence could lose their licenses. That warning came just after Kirk was fatally shot on September 10, 2025, an event that triggered a wave of scrutiny over public employees' social-media activity nationwide.
State Education Officials Said They Were Reviewing Cases
At the time of Kirk's death, the Indiana Department of Education said it was aware of social-media comments made by a small number of Indiana educators following the assassination and was reviewing each matter accordingly, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. The outlet reported that once a complaint comes in, IDOE investigates to determine whether the facts meet the statutory threshold for suspension or revocation. If the agency finds they do, it files a formal complaint with the Indiana Office of Administrative Law Proceedings, which serves as the final administrative authority in issuing an order on an educator's license.
But as of March 2026, that final step hadn't happened. The administrative proceedings office told the Capital Chronicle that no cases involving teacher licenses had been filed with it since Kirk's death. The same report found that at least four K-12 educators around Indiana had resigned after their social-media posts about Kirk's death sparked backlash, and that all 22 of the K-12 educators named on a tracking portal called Eyes on Education still retained active teaching licenses.
Local Fallout Versus State Licensing Action
The gap between local consequences and state licensing action shows up in specific cases the Capital Chronicle documented. A Spanish teacher at Triton Central High School was placed on administrative leave and agreed to retire at the end of the school year after sharing a Facebook post criticizing Kirk, the outlet reported. Nationally, Stateline reported that a wave of firings and investigations swept through academia and government after Kirk's death, including the firing of Ball State University administrator Suzanne Swierc a week after a private Facebook post of hers was circulated publicly. Stateline also noted that a federal judge ordered the University of South Dakota to reinstate an art professor who had been placed on leave over a Kirk-related post, and that an online tracking page called Eyes on Education had logged 28 Kirk-related submissions as of one Thursday afternoon.
Teachers' Union and ACLU Raise Free-Speech Concerns
The Indiana State Teachers Association has condemned political violence following Kirk's death, but it has also warned that punishing teachers for lawful speech could discourage them from speaking freely, per WIBC's reporting. The ACLU of Indiana separately questioned the effect of the issue on educators' First Amendment rights. Neither group's statements resolve whether any of the 25 referrals Rokita cited will ultimately result in license action; the administrative record so far shows no such cases filed as of the Capital Chronicle's March report.
