CRESTON, Iowa — According to a report from KCCI-TV, a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Creston Community School District from moving forward with plans to fire a teacher for her comments regarding the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Last month, Melisa Crook, a high school English teacher from Creston, was informed that she was facing termination for a social-media comment regarding Kirk.

Crook then sued the district in federal court, citing a series of pro-Republican posts by Superintendent Deron Stender and school board president Don Gee, and alleging that her First Amendment rights were being violated. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger recently granted Crook’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking the district’s plans to terminate her. The judge also deferred Crook’s request for a preliminary injunction until after a court hearing that’s currently planned for Oct. 31, 2025.

The order prevents the district’s school board from conducting Crook’s employment hearing, scheduled for Oct. 21, 2025, and from “taking any other adverse employment actions” against Crook based on her Facebook comments. In her ruling, Ebinger found that Crook “is likely to succeed in showing Stender took adverse action against her in response to exercise of her First Amendment rights” and that she is “likely to succeed on the merits of her First Amendment claim as to Stender.”

Ebinger added that she concluded “Crook spoke as a citizen on a matter of public concern when posting her Facebook comment.” As part of her ruling, Ebinger observed that Crook had “responded to and discussed the murder of a public figure, Charlie Kirk, and her (subsequent) longer post clarified her intent” in posting the original comment. “Crook posted her Facebook comments on her personal time, at home, from her personal Facebook account,” Ebinger stated in her ruling. “She did not purport to speak as an employee of the Creston Community School District.

The school district had argued that a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction would defeat its decision to discharge an employee and improperly extend “the employment of a potentially incompetent employee.” Ebinger rejected that argument, stating that “the court finds the enforcement of First Amendment rights outweighs any potential employment harm to defendants. Further, the public has a compelling interest in protection of First Amendment and other constitutional rights.”

As part of her ruling, the judge denied Crook’s request to be removed from administrative leave.