A Texas high school teacher has resigned after igniting nationwide outrage over social media posts that appeared to mock and speculate about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District officials confirmed that English language arts teacher Jennifer Courtemanche resigned on November 24 while she was already in the middle of a formal termination process initiated by the school board.
Courtemanche’s resignation came months after screenshots of her social media posts went viral, drawing condemnation from parents, lawmakers, and education officials across Texas.
Texas Rep. Briscoe Cain was among those who amplified the posts, which questioned the circumstances surrounding Kirk’s death and suggested he may have provoked the violence himself.
“Could this have been the consequences of his actions catching up with him?” Courtemanche wrote in one post following Kirk’s killing.
In another, she appeared to downplay the assassination by injecting race and politics into the tragedy.
“I’ll bet if the victim had been Black or brown or a Democrat influencer, he’d have been singing a different tune,” she wrote. “Could Kirk have baited just one too many people?”
The comments sparked immediate backlash, with critics accusing Courtemanche of celebrating or justifying political violence.
At the time, Courtemanche listed Baytown’s Lee High School as her place of employment on Facebook. Her profile has since been restricted. In her bio, she described herself as a “child of God” and a “work in progress.”
Despite the public uproar, Texas law required the district to follow a multi-step process before terminating her contract. The Goose Creek CISD Board of Trustees voted on September 22 to propose her termination, triggering a formal hearing process.
Under state law, Courtemanche had the right to request a hearing before an independent examiner appointed by the Texas Education Agency. That examiner would have had up to 60 days to conduct an evidentiary hearing and issue a recommendation before the school board made a final decision.
District officials said that the process would have continued had Courtemanche not resigned, per the Conservative Brief.
Courtemanche initially told officials she did not plan to step down voluntarily and retained legal counsel during the proceedings. Her resignation effectively ended the case before a final ruling could be issued.
The district also reviewed social media comments made by another teacher related to Kirk’s death but determined those remarks did not meet the threshold for termination.
Following Kirk’s assassination, the Texas Education Agency reported receiving more than 350 complaints against educators for online comments tied to the killing.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath warned school leaders that free speech protections do not extend to promoting or celebrating violence.
“While the exercise of free speech is a fundamental right, it does not give carte blanche authority to celebrate or sow violence against those that share differing beliefs,” Morath wrote in a letter to superintendents.
The controversy comes as Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has publicly condemned those exploiting her husband’s death for political attacks.
Speaking on Fox News’ “Outnumbered,” she delivered an emotional rebuke to critics and conspiracy theorists targeting her family and Turning Point USA.
“When you go after my family, my Turning Point USA family, my Charlie Kirk Show family, that’s my breaking point,” she said.
Courtemanche’s resignation closes one chapter of the fallout, but the broader debate over political rhetoric, accountability, and the boundaries of speech in public education remains far from settled.
