Public records provide new insight into the events leading up to the resignation of a Columbia High School teacher who was suspended — and later resigned — after posting about Charlie Kirk on Facebook.
Former English teacher Mary Adams posted a partial quote from right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on the day he was shot and later pronounced dead, she confirmed in an email to the school district’s superintendent and Columbia Education Association President Kristian Avise-Rouse.
That post, along with Adams’ Facebook cover photo — which some community members considered threatening — sparked online outrage. One community member emailed the district, calling for Adams to be fired immediately and saying she set a dangerous example for students.
Columbia Community Unit District 4 Superintendent Chris Grode said it was the cover photo that led to Adams’ suspension with pay on Tuesday, Sept. 16. He said in an interview this week with the Belleville News-Democrat that he did not believe firing Adams was “on the table.”
Still, Adams resigned shortly after being suspended, public records show. The school board approved her resignation at its Thursday meeting after roughly a dozen community members voiced support for Adams. Many praised her teaching skills and said she kept politics out of the classroom. Some questioned whether the district’s actions were violating Adams’ right to free speech.
The Belleville News-Democrat submitted a public records request for documents related to Adams’ posts, including emails to and from the school board and administration, her resignation letter, and a copy of the district’s social media policy.
Adams declined to comment.
What led to the teacher's suspension?
The partial Kirk quote Adams first shared said, “Empathy is a made up New Age term that does a lot of damage.” According to Grode, it was not that post that led to Adams being disciplined.
Grode said it was the cover photo that some could interpret as a threat. Two days after posting Kirk’s partial quote, Adams changed her cover photo to a post she originally made in December 2024, she said in an email to Grode and Avise-Rouse.
A screenshot of the cover image included in the public records response reads: “If you mess with me you better run for your life because my husband is coming after you and hell is coming with him.”
Adams told Grode the cover photo was related to a family issue and not in retaliation to anyone who reacted to her Kirk post. Grode noted in an email to board members that a former student had made a negative comment about Adams on a mutual acquaintance’s Facebook post just one day before, which could make the cover photo seem like a threat to those who saw it.
“She seemed to understand this,” Grode wrote to the board. “So I sent her home with pay until the board meeting.”
Adams said in her previous email to Grode and Avise-Rouse that she did not connect the former student’s comment to her post about Kirk.
Adams resigned hours after Grode suspended her. Her undated resignation letter did not state a reason for leaving. Grode told the BND that he assumed backlash to Adams’ social media remarks may have contributed to her decision. At Thursday’s board meeting, public commenters said Adams had been bullied and harassed.
“With the lack of information, you’re left with assumptions and conjecture,” Grode said.
School district policy
Both school board policy and the Columbia Community Unit School District 4 2025-26 Faculty Handbook outline specific rules and guidance for personal technology and social media use. Neither specifically addresses politics as the subject of social media posts.
However, the faculty handbook states: “Specific examples of prohibited social media conduct include posting commentary, content or images that are defamatory, pornographic, proprietary, harassing, libelous or that can create a hostile work environment.” It also forbids the use of personal technology and social media during school hours except during breaks. Both the board policy and handbook say personal technology and social media use must “not interfere with job duties or otherwise be disruptive to the school environment or its operation.”
In an email to Grode, board member Andrea Khoury said she believed Adams made the initial post with Kirk’s quote during school hours, based on the timeline between Kirk’s shooting and the announcement of his death.
What the teacher said about her posts
In her email to Grode and Avise-Rouse, Adams said she made the posts on her private Facebook page and did not know Kirk had died at the time she quoted him. In an email to the board, Grode wrote that Adams told him she knew Kirk had been shot, but not that he had died when she made the posts.
“She feels terrible about the decision she made to post the original quote … and agrees that she should not have posted it in the first place,” Grode wrote, recounting his first conversation with Adams.
Adams’ account states Columbia High School Principal Brian Reeves approached her about the Kirk post on Friday, Sept. 12, and Grode’s emails indicate she took the post down willingly.
“At no time did a single person ask me to remove my post. I chose to remove my post. My account was private, and I have never had current students as friends,” Adams wrote in her email.
She also expressed concern that other teachers had made politically charged posts without facing similar backlash, according to Grode’s email.
“In our discussion, she shared her frustrations that teachers post online that our Governor is a Fat Ass and nothing is done about it,” Grode wrote to the board. “I told her A) I’d like to think that if someone posted that after the governor died of a coronary, I would be talking to them, B) that I don’t go looking at people’s social media and only address what comes to me, and C) this issue arose after an individual’s death, and it was in poor taste. We agreed on these points.”
According to Adams, she changed her cover photo to the quote about her husband that others found threatening on Friday, Sept. 12, before Reeves spoke to her. In an interview, Grode clarified that he was unaware of the second post until the weekend.
When asked about it on Monday, Adams told Grode she originally made that post in December but recently made it her cover photo on Sept. 12. Grode suspended her on Tuesday.
It appears Adams has since taken her Facebook account down.
Board discussions was planned before teacher resigned
Grode told the Belleville News-Democrat that, with the information he had available on Tuesday, Sept. 16, he was comfortable with the decision to suspend Adams with pay.
If Adams had not resigned later that day, she would have been scheduled for a closed-session discussion with the board during its Thursday meeting, at which point the board would have determined what action to take, Grode said.
He said the board has several options in these situations, including extending the paid suspension, suspending the teacher without pay, or even overruling the suspension. Terminating Adams was not, in Grode’s mind, under consideration.
In an email to Grode, Khoury said she felt Adams should at minimum receive a written warning, stating: “Adams may be tenured, but she’s not Teflon.”
“Her logic that he may have only been mortally wounded, but not dead (yet) is why she thought it was OK to post on social media? And to pick a snippet of his statement to serve her personal feeling? She is so reckless and perverse,” Khoury’s email says.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Madison Lammert is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
