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An academic from North Carolina, who was also running for a seat in the state House, lost his teaching position following a controversial remark about Charlie Kirk. The incident occurred last week.
Chris Schulte, who had been a psychology instructor at Coastal Carolina Community College since 2008, was dismissed on Thursday. His termination followed the release of a student’s audio recording in which Schulte criticized Kirk and Turning Point USA.
In the recording, Schulte is heard saying, “Did he deserve to die? No. But he was a racist piece of s—. And Turning Point USA is a racist piece of s— organization.”
After his dismissal, Schulte did not retract his statements, standing by them in a public declaration. Schulte is pursuing a seat as a Democratic candidate in North Carolina’s State House.
Chris Schulte from North Carolina. (Photo courtesy of Chris Schulte’s campaign)
“Campus security had to escort me to my car because threats were made against me at my workplace after I spoke out for academic freedom and called out racism and censorship where I saw it,” Schulte wrote. “I spoke passionately on that topic because I care deeply about this country and I’m concerned about protecting constitutional freedoms, especially the First Amendment, that defines it. Today’s events only reinforced why those protections matter.”
“In an attempt to bring awareness to the censorship of faculty happening at UNC-Chapel Hill with secret recordings, I was secretly recorded by a student,” he wrote. “It is a sad statement about our country right now that my comments would elicit threats not just on my career, but also my life.”
Schulte is one of many academics across the nation who found themselves in hot water over a litany of crude commentary celebrating the TPUSA founder’s death last year.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was murdered last year. (Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)
Many received short disciplinary stints and are now back in their roles.
On Dec. 30, Austin Peay State University in Tennessee sent a message to community members notifying them that Darren Michael, an associate professor of acting and directing, had been reinstated. Michael was fired on Sept. 12, two days after Kirk’s assassination. He shared a post with a 2023 remark by Kirk that gun deaths were “unfortunately worth it” to protect the Second Amendment.
On top of being rehired, Austin Peay acknowledged that it had not followed its own policies for terminating tenured faculty, and paid Michael a $500,000 settlement, according to local reports.
Erika Kirk speaks onstage during the New York Times DealBook Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Dec. 3, 2025, in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images for The New York Times)
At the University of South Dakota, art professor Michael Hook was fired for slamming Kirk in the wake of his assassination.
“OK. I don’t give a flying f— about this Kirk person,” Hook said hours after Kirk was killed, according to Inside Hire Ed. “I’m sorry for his family that he was a hate spreading Nazi and got killed. I’m sure they deserved better. Maybe good people could now enter their lives. But geez, where was all this concern when the politicians in Minnesota were shot? And the school shootings? And Capitol Police? I have no thoughts or prayers for this hate spreading Nazi. A shrug, maybe.”
Hook sued the school after his termination, and on Sept. 26, a federal judge ordered him to be temporarily reinstated while the legal proceedings continued, deciding that he had a reasonable chance of prevailing in his suit.
Shortly thereafter, the South Dakota Board of Regents agreed not to fire Hook, and he dropped his lawsuit, The Argus Leader reported.