Florida education official said he’s looking to revoke Clay County teacher’s license

The Palm Beach Post | By Stephany Matat | September 23, 2025

This comes at a time when companies and state agencies are firing employees for comments considered offensive about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Florida’s education commissioner announced that he’s looking to revoke a Clay County teacher’s license after comments he called “grossly immoral” about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

In his Sept. 22 announcement, Anastasios “Stasi” Kamoutsas said the professional practices office in the Florida Department of Education will be conducting investigations into each case for teachers who celebrate the death of Kirk. He said he found probable cause to sanction the Clay teacher and get her license permanently revoked.

It’s part of a national pattern of state agencies and companies holding employees accountable for comments considered offensive about Kirk’s death. First Amendment experts have been concerned about firings, but also say public employees, like teachers, may face trouble since their free speech rights are not absolute.

“In Florida, we uphold the First Amendment and we foster civil discourse, as well as open dialogue in our schools, (but) this commitment does not extend to promoting or glorifying violence as a means of resolving disagreement,” Kamoutsas said at an Orlando press conference.

The Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond when asked for a copy of Kamoutsas’ findings related to the Clay County teacher. Last month, he filed a complaint against a Gainesville high school teacher to Florida’s Education Practices Commission and posted the letter detailing his allegations, after a parent accused the teacher of nominating a student “Most Likely to Become a Dictator.”

The teacher from Clay County was suspended from her duties at Ridgeview Elementary School. One of her social media posts included an article about the shooting and said: “This may not be the obituary we were all hoping to wake up to, but this is a close second for me.”

A Clay schools spokeswoman said the teacher, Kelly Brock-Sanchez, was put on administrative leave Sept. 11 and has been awaiting a School Board decision on any discipline.

Kamoutsas said he found probable cause against the teacher for four counts: gross immorality, the failure to protect the safety and welfare of students, reduced effectiveness as an educator and the failure to distinguish personal views from that of a public educational institution. (Probable cause means it’s more likely than not that a violation of a standard occurred.)

The commissioner’s announcement comes a week and a half after he wrote to district superintendents to say teachers could be fired or lose certifications if they post “despicable comments” related to Kirk’s death.

“Holding educators accountable for speech that celebrates violence in schools is not a violation of free speech. It is a necessary step to uphold the standards of the teaching profession and the safety of our schools,” Kamoutsas said.

Florida law says revoking a teacher’s license is a decision made by the state Education Practices Commission, which last reported holding hearings on Sept. 12.

A public employee does have First Amendment rights, but so does the government in ensuring its employees’ speech doesn’t cause disruption to the services they provide, according to Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute focused on First Amendment law.

Courts follow a test to determine whether a public employee’s speech is protected, including determining whether the speech is related to a matter of public concern and whether it would disrupt the ability of a government to effectively and efficiently conduct its services.

Using a teacher as an example, Calvert said in a previous interview that the question of disrupting services could be argued by school districts or officials, who may argue that some students are uncomfortable with comments related to Kirk’s death. This would then fall into affecting their professional duties as an employee.

“When you sign up to be a government employee, you do retain some First Amendment rights, but you don’t have absolute ones,” Calvert said.