Staff Reports
The brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10 stunned the country and forced a rare moment of bipartisan horror — and yet some in public life reacted with astonishing moral blindness. Major outlets report Kirk was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University, an act that shocked tens of millions of Americans who reject political violence no matter the politics involved.
So when Community Unit District 300 board president Nancy Zettler publicly shared a social media post saying, “The first thing I thought when I heard this today was ‘karma, it’s a ,’” it wasn’t just tone-deaf — it was a flashing red light about who is shaping our children’s minds. Local reporting shows parents in the district were rightly outraged and organized protests outside the district offices demanding accountability from a person entrusted with overseeing the education of 20,000 kids.
At a packed September board meeting, dozens of parents pressed Zettler for answers, and the videos and screenshots of the controversy spread across social media as the story grew. Instead of a sober apology, reporting shows Zettler dug in and repeatedly told the public she would not apologize for what she characterized as her private expression of how she was processing news of the murder. That refusal only deepened the community’s alarm about bias and judgment at the highest level of the district.
Conservative parents watching this unfold should recognize the pattern: when left-leaning officials stop pretending to be neutral, the classroom becomes another front in the culture war. School boards were supposed to be local governance bodies focused on math, reading, and safety — not platforms for celebrating political violence or broadcasting contempt for half the country. This episode proves how crucial it is for parents to stay organized, show up, and hold every elected official to basic standards of decency and professionalism.
Don’t buy the “it was just a private post” excuse. Elected board members do not get a pass to weaponize social media while they still hold authority over curriculum, hiring, and school climate. When community leaders post that a political assassination is “karma,” it raises real questions about whether they can fairly steward a diverse student population and reassure all parents that their children will be treated with respect. Parents who want schools to be safe, nonpolitical places for learning must not be cowed into silence.
This is bigger than one bad post or one contentious meeting — it’s a wake-up call about the leftward capture of institutions that should be neutral. If school boards are going to be ideological staging grounds, conservatives cannot cede the field; we must elect principled local leaders who put kids first and reject any hint of celebrating violence against opponents. The lesson for every hardworking American is simple: show up, vote in every local race, and demand accountability when officials cross the line from opinion to endorsement of barbarism.
The parents of District 300 deserve better than a board president who treats a political murder as fodder for partisan gloating. If our schools are to remain anchors of stability and civic virtue, community outrage must turn into action — not only speeches and protests, but ballots and recalls where necessary. This country was built by people who stood up for decency and the rule of law; now is not the time to shrink from that duty.
