Linda Grubbs doesn’t recommend any educator do what she did.
After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a college event in September, Grubbs hit the “post” button on a social media message about him and didn’t soften her opinion.
She labeled Kirk a racist, a misogynist and still said she considers him a Nazi who has played a part in radicalizing young American men into white nationalists who loathe women having agency apart from men. She still considers Kirk an apologist for violence against women.
She said swearing and lashing out online was wrong, however. She was fired as a Lake Dallas ISD classroom aide for the posts, and her young daughter lost her spot in what Grubbs describes as an exemplary prekindergarten program.
“Every time I tell the story, it seems more stupid,” Grubbs said. “I was unprofessional, but educators are human. We make mistakes.”
At a recent local fundraiser hosted to support her, Grubbs said she regrets being unprofessional.
“I think, on that day, everything compounded so bad, that I got online and I was like, ‘If you’re going to support this racist, misogynistic college groomer, for the love of Christ, delete me,’” Grubbs said. “Like, I was seeing people who I loved and trusted posting AI videos of him with Martin Luther King Jr.,” she added.
Kirk was the co-founder of Turning Point USA, an organization best known for Kirk’s visits to college campuses where he would challenge students’ liberal and progressive political ideas. He was also a prolific podcaster who gained attention and wealth for provocative statements about race, gender, sexual orientation and identity. He promoted conservative Christianity and dismissed diversity in public life.
Grubbs said this school year marked a promising new start after a tough school year that dragged on her mental health. She has worked with children since she was a teenager and felt at home in the classroom, whether she was a substitute teacher or a classroom aide helping students learn new things.
She’d gotten therapy and medication for anxiety and was starting to hit her stride at work again. She wasn’t immune to the ongoing political turbulence dividing Americans.
When Kirk was murdered by a gunman in Utah in September, Grubbs said she recalled the mass casualty training public school employees are required to complete. Part of the training, she said, dealt explicitly with gun violence.
“The Stop the Bleed training — which is so beneficial, I’m not complaining about it — but it’s teaching you how to stuff bullet wounds in kids,” Grubbs said. “You have a kid mannequin, and you just stuff it with gauze. I’m not complaining about it — everyone should know. But to picture yourself stuffing a child’s wound is a lot. There were teachers turning white. And it was sad.”
When news of Kirk’s murder broke in real time, Grubbs remembered his solid support for Americans’ constitutional right to own and use guns, and his belief that some gun deaths are acceptable to preserve the Second Amendment. In fact, Kirk was challenging an audience member on mass shootings when he was fatally shot.
Grubbs said she typically doesn’t argue with people online, but when people pushed back, she went low. She said she posted some of Kirk’s most provocative quotes.
“I ended up arguing online,” she said. “Ninety percent of what I posted was direct Charlie Kirk quotes, because he said some of the most heinous, racist things I’ve ever heard. But the things I said before I posted that are what ultimately bit me in the butt. And I regret posting them. Not because I got in trouble, but because never in a million years did I think that it would be used, and that, you know, people would see me and think, ‘This is who she is.’ Because it’s not.”
Grubbs said she was doxed locally and nationally.
Then, a parent complained to school officials and reported that Grubbs had celebrated Kirk’s death in her children’s classroom. Grubbs denies the allegation.
“I didn’t,” she said. “I think you could ask everyone who was around me that day and they’d back me up.”
Grubbs’ firing came as hundreds of public school employees have been referred to the Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division — a program that has typically been reserved for reviewing complaints against certified teachers accused of abuse and sexual misconduct — for public comments about Kirk.
On Sept. 12, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath released a statement reporting that the agency had fielded complaints that “some Texas public school educators have posted and/or shared reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
Morath said the posts could violate the Educators’ Code of Ethics. The code of ethics is broad and includes prohibitions against “using institutional or professional privileges for personal or partisan advantage” and that educators be of “good moral character and be worthy to instruct or supervise the youth of this state.”
TEA officials said the division is reviewing complaints against educators who allegedly made or posted inappropriate comments related to Kirk after his murder. Morath said the agency will investigate the complaints to determine if the reported conduct violates state rules and warrants sanction.
The agency hasn’t made any statements about the investigations and didn’t say whether employees who aren’t in certified positions could be barred from future public school jobs as a result of public statements related to Kirk.
Grubbs isn’t a certified teacher. She has spent years working as a paraprofessional — a layer of educators who act as assistants to certified teachers.
Turning Point USA didn’t respond to requests for comment by Friday afternoon.
Officials at Lake Dallas ISD declined to comment, even to confirm the length of Grubbs’ tenure. The district’s 2025-26 employee handbook, however, indicates that Grubbs violated the district’s local code of conduct, specifically the policy governing personal use of electronic communications, which includes all social media platforms, text and emails, instant messaging, chatrooms and video-sharing sites.
“As role models for the district’s students, employees are responsible for their public conduct even when they are not acting as district employees,” the policy states on Page 54. “Employees will be held to the same professional standards in their public use of electronic communications as they are for any other public conduct. If an employee’s use of electronic communications interferes with the employee’s ability to effectively perform his or her job duties, the employee is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.”
Grubbs doesn’t plan to return to the classroom. She’s pursuing a degree at the University of North Texas and is considering a career in higher education.
In the meantime, she’s doing odd jobs to make money. She said she has leaned on her husband for support and is spending time with her daughter.
“It was very hard for us as a family,” Grubb said. “So this [fundraiser] is to help with legal fees. After insurance was pulled out, I made about $500 a month. I make that through BioLife and selling my blood. I make more money walking dogs and selling my blood.”