Florida Teacher Says He Was Forced to Remove Charlie Kirk Poster: “This Is Political Discrimination”

By [Your Name] | Fox News

A Flori­da high school teacher says he was ordered to remove a poster fea­tur­ing con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tor Char­lie Kirk, call­ing it a clear case of polit­i­cal dis­crim­i­na­tion in America’s class­rooms.

William Log­gans, who teach­es com­pre­hen­sive law hon­ors and eco­nom­ics at Hori­zon High School in Orange Coun­ty, told WESH 2 News he was instruct­ed to take down a poster that dis­played a pho­to of Kirk along­side an inspi­ra­tional quote:

“Nev­er under­es­ti­mate the pow­er of your voice and the impact you can have on the world when you speak up for what you believe in.”

Log­gans said his class­room walls are cov­ered with moti­va­tion­al quotes from his­toric fig­ures like Mar­tin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Ronald Rea­gan. Yet, the only one deemed “too con­tro­ver­sial” by admin­is­tra­tors was the one fea­tur­ing Char­lie Kirk — a con­ser­v­a­tive voice and the founder of Turn­ing Point USA.

“They Admitted It Wasn’t Controversial”

Accord­ing to Log­gans, the school admin­is­tra­tion open­ly admit­ted that the quote itself wasn’t polit­i­cal or inap­pro­pri­ate, but insist­ed the poster come down sim­ply because Kirk is a “con­tro­ver­sial polit­i­cal fig­ure.”

“They said it didn’t say any­thing con­tro­ver­sial,” Log­gans said. “But because Char­lie Kirk is con­sid­ered polit­i­cal­ly divi­sive by some, they told me to remove it. That’s not neu­tral­i­ty — that’s dis­crim­i­na­tion.”

Log­gans has since retained legal coun­sel and filed a griev­ance against the school dis­trict, alleg­ing view­point dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­la­tion of his right to free expres­sion. He says he’s pre­pared to take the mat­ter to court if nec­es­sary.

School Cites “Neutrality Policy” After Kirk’s Assassination

The dis­trict claimed its deci­sion was based on main­tain­ing “class­room neu­tral­i­ty,” cit­ing a memo from Flori­da Edu­ca­tion Com­mis­sion­er Anas­ta­sios Kamout­sas issued in the wake of Kirk’s trag­ic assas­si­na­tion last month at Utah Val­ley Uni­ver­si­ty.

Kamout­sas’ memo stat­ed that “edu­ca­tors’ pub­lic con­duct” could affect trust in the learn­ing envi­ron­ment, but the com­mis­sion­er clar­i­fied the direc­tive was aimed at teach­ers mak­ing “dis­gust­ing com­ments” cel­e­brat­ing Kirk’s death — not those hon­or­ing him.

Despite that clar­i­fi­ca­tion, Orange Coun­ty offi­cials demand­ed the poster’s removal “to main­tain neu­tral­i­ty,” say­ing their goal was to cre­ate a “respect­ful, inclu­sive envi­ron­ment.”

“Double Standard,” Attorney Says

Log­gans’ attor­ney, Antho­ny Saba­ti­ni, argues the school dis­trict isn’t enforc­ing neu­tral­i­ty even­ly. He cit­ed exam­ples of class­rooms dis­play­ing posters of Barack Oba­ma and oth­er polit­i­cal fig­ures with­out issue.

“This is selec­tive enforce­ment,” Saba­ti­ni said. “If this were a left-lean­ing fig­ure, we wouldn’t even be talk­ing about it. This is anoth­er exam­ple of con­ser­v­a­tive voic­es being silenced in our schools.”

The school dis­trict denied any polit­i­cal bias, stat­ing all pol­i­cy vio­la­tions are han­dled “with­out favoritism.”

Still, crit­ics argue the mes­sage is clear: con­ser­v­a­tive view­points are increas­ing­ly unwel­come in pub­lic edu­ca­tion.

A Push for Free Speech on Campus

Log­gans says he hopes to estab­lish a stu­dent club inspired by Turn­ing Point USA at Hori­zon High — a move he believes could help restore ide­o­log­i­cal bal­ance on cam­pus.

“I want my stu­dents to know it’s okay to speak up, to think crit­i­cal­ly, and to believe in some­thing,” Log­gans said. “That’s what edu­ca­tion should be about.”

For now, his fight con­tin­ues — not just over a poster, but over a prin­ci­ple.