Days after reposting social media content celebrating the fatal shooting of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, a Gibson County, Indiana, teacher is out of a job.
Ian Gamroth, formerly a teacher at Gibson Southern High School, resigned after reposting content showing a photograph of Kirk and stating, "HUMANITY IS NOW A BETTER PLACE." Another post Gamroth shared included a quote often attributed to poet and playwright Oscar Wilde: "Some men improve the world only by leaving it."
Still another post re-posted by Gamroth noted Kirk's shooting and followed with, "(Expletive) that guy. He's a fascist carnival barker who built a career turning college campuses into right-wing indoctrination fairs, demonizing queer kids, immigrants and anyone who doesn't fit his cookie-cutter idea of America."
More: There's heat around the Charlie Kirk assassination in Evansville
Those are the wrong messages, said Steve Gruszewski, a member of South Gibson School Corporation's school board.
"It was very inappropriate, especially in our community, being a very conservative, Catholic community," Gruszewski said Wednesday.
Gruszewski said Gamroth's departure was "worked out between the teachers association and the superintendent."
Attempts to reach Gamroth were unsuccessful, but Bryan Perry, superintendent of South Gibson School Corporation, said Gamroth had resigned. Perry confirmed the former teacher's departure is connected to a report last week that the corporation was investigating social media posts made by an employee in the aftermath of Kirk's murder.
Following a rash of firings and other disciplinary actions against educators and others who publicly cheered Kirk’s assassination, this is the first known incident of a teacher in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey or Gibson counties departing after posting anti-Kirk content.
Gamroth's resignation caught the attention of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who re-posted the former teacher's content on Facebook on Wednesday while noting he had signed a separation agreement.
"Good! Any educator or administrator comfortable enough to share such heinous things on social media isn’t responsible or reasonable enough to shape our children’s minds," Rokita wrote.
Area Democratic leaders are discouraging anti-Kirk talk
The Kirk assassination on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University and the subsequent arrest of 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson rocked the nation and spurred fears of an increase in political violence. It has also spawned increasingly harsh rhetoric on both sides of America's political divide.
Teachers, college students and faculty members, business leaders and people working in a host of other professions have been fired, suspended or put on leave for publicly making remarks celebrating the death of Kirk, a 31-year-old man who left behind a wife and two young children.
Wednesday evening brought the news that Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show was suspended indefinitely following the host's politically charged comments on Kirk's assassination.
More: Jimmy Kimmel's show pulled off-air 'indefinitely' by ABC after Charlie Kirk comments
Conversely, the many admirers who made Kirk a national political figure have mourned his sudden loss and public murder by a man Utah's governor said was "deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology."
Rokita has asked the public to report to his Eyes on Education portal any instances of Indiana educators or school administrators making comments that "celebrate or rationalize" Kirk's assassination.
Other conservatives, while expressing disgust with individuals who criticized Kirk after his death, have stopped short of saying they should be fired for that.
Mike Boatman, an Evansville resident who has been vocal about the issue, said people are being fired not for quoting Kirk or heaping scorn on him, but for actually celebrating his murder.
Businesses, schools and universities can't be expected to keep employees who go that far and who potentially alienate large swaths of the public, said Boatman, who plans to attend a public memorial service for Kirk on Sunday in Glendale, Arizona.
"I don't think somebody should be fired because they disagree with somebody," Boatman told the Courier & Press. "But if you're representing a company or school or whatever and if you're selling a product and you have a person who's doing that, you may lose business."
Local and area Democratic Party leaders have made it clear they don't want to see their supporters celebrating Kirk's death.
Gamroth, a 44-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran, represented Democrats as the party's nominee against Republican State Rep. Matt Hostettler in House District 64 in 2020. Hostettler won with 76% of the vote.
"I've told everybody to just shut the hell up if they don't have anything kind to say," said Dave Crooks, chairman of the 8th District Democratic Party. "We've all got to tone it down, including (Republican President Donald Trump) the guy with the biggest megaphone.
"I'm sad for the whole situation. It's not good for the country, obviously. For goodness sake, it's a horrible tragedy and it's just ramping up all the political rhetoric."
The Vanderburgh County Democratic Party made its own social media post in the immediate aftermath of Kirk's death.
"We want to express our deep concern and condemnation of the shooting of Charlie Kirk," it said. "Even though we disagreed on nearly every political issue, violence can never be the way we respond to those differences.
"We have to do better as a country — to lower the temperature, stop demonizing each other, and remember that every life has value. Political violence has no place in our democracy."