(Creston, Iowa) – A high school English teacher from Creston, facing termination for a social-media comment regarding the killing of Charlie Kirk, is fighting back, citing a series of pro-Republican posts by the superintendent. KCCI-TV reports Melisa Crook has filed a lawsuit against the Creston Community School District, its superintendent and the school board, claiming her First Amendment rights are being violated and seeking an injunction blocking her dismissal. As part of her lawsuit, Crook is citing numerous political and religious social-media posts allegedly made by Creston Community School District Superintendent Deron Stender over the past five years and by school board president Don Gee.

In some of the posts, the superintendent has allegedly questioned the rights of immigrants; voiced support for Republicans including President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa; referred to former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican critic of Trump, as a “snake;” and called backers of former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, “snowflakes.” Stender said Wednesday he cannot comment on his social-media posts, calling them a “personnel matter” that was handled by the school board. He also declined to comment on Crook’s lawsuit, calling it a separate personnel matter. Gee also declined to comment on either his posts or the lawsuit.

In her lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Crook, who has taught English for the Creston district since 2022, alleges she has been “subjected to retaliation, and is now threatened with the termination of her continuing-teaching contract, because of a private, off-duty comment on Facebook.”

Her Sept. 10, 2025, comment was made in response to a family member’s Facebook post about the shooting death of Kirk, a controversial, conservative political activist. The lawsuit states that “at her home, on her personal time, and using her personal Facebook account, Crook wrote, ‘He is a terrible human being … terrible. I do not wish death on anyone, but him not being here is a blessing.’” Within a few hours, the lawsuit alleges, a conservative blog, the Iowa Standard, reported on Crook’s comment, identifying her by name and by her status as a public-school teacher working for the Creston district. The next morning, after seeing how others had perceived her original comment, Crook wrote on Facebook that she did “not wish anyone death” and apologized.

Later that morning, she issued a more extensive apology on her own Facebook page, saying she does not condone violence or the killing of people you disagree with politically or otherwise. She admitted that she should have given more consideration to her posted thoughts, and took responsibility for the “ poor wording” of her post. Her comments prompted Republican Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley to state “…hate has no place in our state and certainly does not belong in our schools.” He said also if the school district didn’t take appropriate action, the Iowa House Government Oversight Committee would address the issue and take action to root out that type of hate from schools in the State.