A Lee County public school teacher’s suspension for a comment about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk should be ended and she should receive back pay, an administrative court judge has recommended.
Division of Administrative Hearings Judge Andrew Manko found that a derisive remark comments about Kirk posted on Facebook by Mariah Roller, an educator at Three Oaks Middle School in Fort Myers, caused “minimal” disruption to the Lee County School Board.
“Ms. Roller’s private Facebook post on her personal Facebook page was not unethical, and it was not her action, but that of a third party, that resulted in its dissemination,” wrote Manko in the Aug. 14 ruling.
On Sept. 10, 2025, the day Kirk was assassinated by a gunman while speaking at a Utah college, Roller wrote a post criticizing his past defense of the Second Amendment.
“What’s that about the cost of the second amendment being ‘some gun deaths every year,’? Bye Charlie,” the post read, followed by a waving emoji and three fire emojis, according to the DOAH decision.
The post was private but was snipped and disseminated on social media before it was deleted less than an hour later.
The Lee County School Board argued Roller’s post caused “substantial disruption” at the school.
But Manko found only two parents complained to the board, not the school’s principal, and out of the 15 to 20 emails sent to the principal about the social media post, “he only took the time to send a generic response to a few of them.”
Attempts to reach Roller’s attorney were unsuccessful, and the Lee County School District did not respond to requests for comment.
Unlike in civil court proceedings, DOAH rulings are merely recommendations to state and local government agencies, which do not have to abide by the decisions.
Numerous educators in the state, including school board members, posted about Kirk’s death on social media and were threatened with disciplinary actions by the Florida Department of Education if the posts violated the state’s employee conduct policies.
“It has been brought to my attention that some Florida educators have posted despicable comments on social media regarding the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk,” wrote then-Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas in a memo the day after the shooting. “These few are not a reflection of the great, high-quality teachers who make up the vast majority of Florida’s educators. Nevertheless, I will be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in this vile, sanctionable behavior.”
Other teachers throughout the state who were disciplined for posts regarding Kirk have similarly had their cases heard by DOAH, including Matthew Theobald, a Martin County social studies teacher.
In June, DOAH judge Jodi-Ann Livingstone recommended the Martin County School Board rescind his termination and award him back pay and benefits she ruled the school board failed to prove just cause existed to suspend and terminate his employment.
Martin County objected and entered a final order affirming Theobald’s suspension without pay and termination.
