McMahon wants more penalized teachers for celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk

EXCLUSIVE: According to the Secretary of Education, Linda Linda McMahon.

McMahon’s comments come while tributes to Kirk on campuses have been degraded and, as higher education establishments have abandoned employees for controversial declarations concerning the death of Kirk.

“I saw some of these college presidents who dismissed or suspended teachers or other members of the faculty who really spoke badly and celebrated the death of Charlie – I would like to see more, frankly,” McMahon told Fox News Digital Thursday in Washington at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education.

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon speaks to the Reagan Institute on education in Washington on September 18, 2025. (Connor McLaren / The Reagan Institute)

For example, Fox News Digital pointed out for the first time that a director of George Washington University was no longer employed by school after having published on social networks “no thoughts, no prayers” after Kirk’s death.

Likewise, Fox News Digital reported that students from the University of North Carolina Wilmington painted a rock on Tuesday that Kirk supporters had designed to honor his memory. Rock on campus is generally painted to promote various movements or causes on the campus, told Fox News Digital Reagan Faulkner, president of the Republican section of the UNCW College.

“It is really, in itself, a crime of personal integrity, when this kind of thing happens,” said McMahon about the tributes ruined in Kirk on campuses.

Kirk, 31, was killed after suffering from a ball injury during his “American tour” at the University of Utah Valley on September 10. The firing suspect, Tyler Robinson, was charged on Monday aggravated murder, as well as other accusations.

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Charlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025 in Orem, Utah, before his assassination. (Trent Nelson / The Salt Lake Tribune / Getty Images)

The assassination occurs a year after two attempts to take the life of the president.

Meanwhile, McMahon said that Kirk’s death would arouse greater appreciation in the country for civil speech – even among those who have different opinions.

“Charlie’s heritage will be more and more people will understand how important civil dialogue is and freedom of expression on campuses across the country,” said McMahon. “Charlie was a very direct speaker on his faith, on his beliefs, on his principles. He did not hesitate to challenge people who had different beliefs, but not in a way of being an affront with them, but a way to ask them to share why they believe what they believed, and he would share why he believed what he believed.”

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The Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, attended the signing ceremony of the decree to reduce the size and scope of the education department in the east house of the White House on March 20, 2025 in Washington. (SOMODEVILLA / GETTY Images)

“And I think it will be a large part of his heritage that will live,” said McMahon. “And I think we have opened many more doors and many other opportunities for this civilian speech with the incredibly unhappy and sad tragedy of its assassination.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration promised to take action against those who applauded Kirk’s death on social networks, and blamed the “radical left” for recent political violence.

“The radical left caused enormous damage to the country,” Trump told journalists on Tuesday. “But we are installing it.”

Andrew Mark Miller from Fox News contributed to this report.