Texas cracked down on teachers for posts about Charlie Kirk, union lawsuit says

A Texas teachers union sued the state's education department on Tuesday, accusing it of an improper “wave of retaliation” against public school employees over their social media comments following the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.

The lawsuit says the free speech rights of teachers and other school staff were violated by the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner, Mike Morath, because they directed local school districts to document what the education agency described as “vile content” posted online after Kirk was fatally shot in September.

Despite calls for civility, some people who criticized Kirk after his assassination faced a backlash from Republicans who saw them as dishonoring him, leading to firings by universities, sports teams and media companies. Florida's education commissioner also promised to investigate teachers over objectionable comments.

The lawsuit says the Texas agency has received more than 350 complaints about individual educators, and the agency said Tuesday that 95 investigations remain open.

Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, alleged that the state clearly demonstrated it is trying to police speech that offends Morath because it hasn't given similar directives after mass shootings or other violence, such as the killing of actor-director Rob Reiner.

“It was in fact a witch hunt,” Capo said during a news conference in Austin.

The education agency said it could not comment “on outstanding legal matters.”

The lawsuit cites the cases of four unnamed teachers — one in the Houston area and three in the San Antonio area — who were investigated over social media posts critical of Kirk or of the reaction to his death. According to the lawsuit, the Houston-area teacher was fired, while the three San Antonio-area teachers remain under investigation.

Texas AFT, which represents about 66,000 teachers and other school employees, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Austin. The four teachers were anonymous because of concerns about their safety, Capo said.

The lawsuit comes less than month after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both conservative Republicans, announced a partnership with Turning Point USA, the right-wing group Kirk founded, to create chapters on every high school campus in the state.

The Associated Press sent emails seeking comment from the governor's office and Turning Point USA, which are not named as defendants in the suit.

Morath told school superintendents in a Sept. 12 letter that social media posts could violate Texas educators' code of ethics and promised that “each instance will be thoroughly investigated.”

The lawsuit argues that Morath's letter represents a state policy that is too broad and too vague to be enforced fairly and without squelching protected speech.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that agencies can limit public employees' speech if it deals with their official duties or if it could disrupt the workplace, but Randi Weingarten, the union's national president, said neither is an issue in the Texas lawsuit.

"We’re talking about schoolteachers when they were not in classrooms — in private, on their own social media, commenting on a matter that everyone in the country and the world saw,” she said during the news conference.

The lawsuit said none of their posts celebrated or promoted violence, which Morath said wouldn't be protected speech.

Kirk was an unabashed Christian conservative who often made provocative statements about politics, gender and race. He founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and built it into one of the country’s largest political organizations, shaping a generation of young people by taking his conservative message onto college campuses. He was shot during such an appearance at a university in Utah.

FILE - Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks at The Believers' Summit 2024 at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach, Fla., July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE - Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks at a Turning Point event prior to Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaking, Sept. 4, 2024, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

FILE - Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally, Oct. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s moonbound astronauts have reason to celebrate, and not just because their launch went so well. Their toilet is now working.

The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned as soon as the Artemis II crew reached orbit Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Christina Koch through some plumbing tricks to fix it.

The three Americans and one Canadian are on track to bust out of orbit around Earth on Thursday night and zoom to the moon for a lunar fly-around. It will be Mission Control’s first translunar injection since Apollo's swan song in 1972.

Mission managers gave the “go” late Thursday afternoon for the engine firing. “We love those words, and we’re loving the view,” Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said.

To set the mood, Mission Control’s wake-up music for the crew was “Green Light” by John Legend featuring André 3000. The song segued into the 3-2-1 of the astronauts' thunderous liftoff, followed by a medley of greetings from NASA teams around the country.

“We are ready to go, and that was awesome,” pilot Victor Glover said.

While awaiting their orbital departure, the astronauts savored the views of Earth from tens of thousands of miles high. Koch told Mission Control that they can make out the entire coastlines of continents and even the South Pole, her old stomping ground.

"It is just absolutely phenomenal," radioed Koch, who spent a year at an Antarctic research station before joining NASA.

Mission Control managed to bump up the Orion capsule’s cabin temperature. It was so cold earlier in the mission — 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) — that the four astronauts had to dig into suitcases for long-sleeved clothes.

Commanded by Reid Wiseman, the mission is due to end with a Pacific splashdown on April 10. NASA is counting on the test flight to kickstart the entire Artemis program and lead to a moon landing by two astronauts in 2028.

Before that happens, Orion's toilet may need some design tweaks.

Located in the floor with a door and curtain for privacy, the capsule's lone toilet is based on an experimental commode that launched to the International Space Station in 2020. That station potty barely saw any use and has been out of order for years.

Known as the universal waste management system, the compact toilet uses air suction instead of water and gravity to remove waste, similar to earlier space toilets. It’s also designed to better accommodate female astronauts.

Koch and her crewmates had to resort to a bag and funnel system for urinating until she got the toilet working overnight.

Any toilet — even a fitful one — is better than none if you ask any of the six surviving Apollo astronauts.

NASA's Apollo capsules were too small to accommodate a toilet, so the all-male crews relied on bags to relieve themselves throughout the lunar journey. These so-called Apollo bags were repurposed during NASA's later space shuttle flights; they served as backup whenever the shuttle toilet acted up.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this photo provided by NASA, a view of the Earth from NASA's Orion spacecraft as it orbits above the planet during the Artemis II test flight, on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, an Artemis program patch floating in the International Space Station's cupola, on March 30, 2026. (Jessica Meir/NASA via AP)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)