A Westhampton Beach High School music teacher is facing backlash from community members over a TikTok post she recorded shortly after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
While some parents and residents have defended teacher Laura Mara, saying she was expressing her frustration with gun violence and that her opinion is unrelated to her work in the classroom, others are calling for her dismissal.
Critics argue that her post — in which she commented on reactions to tragedies, in particular the Sept. 10 assassination of Kirk and school shootings — was insensitive and inappropriate for an educator.
Kirk, 31, co-founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University in Utah. Police have arrested Tyler James Robinson on charges of aggravated murder and other counts.
In her video, recorded in a car and posted to her @longislandlesbian TikTok account, Mara said: “I’m actually not comparing tragedies; I’m comparing how people respond to tragedies.”
The Clear Lake, Wisconsin, native referenced public reactions to school shootings and to Kirk’s own controversial comments about gun violence.
“We are not celebrating his death. We are responding to his death the way he responded to children getting pew-pewed in schools,” she said on TikTok. “And that response is, ‘Thoughts and prayers.’ I guess that’s the price you pay to freely bear arms in the United States of America.”
The TikTok post was not well received by many people in the community and has since been taken down. Westhampton Beach parent Wendy Fisher captured the video and shared it publicly on Facebook, saying she found it disturbing and that it implies Kirk deserved his fate.
“I think it was hateful rhetoric and showing bias against certain groups of students,” Fisher told News12 Long Island.
Fisher said about 30 people attended a recent school board meeting to voice concerns, with several parents urging the district to remove Mara from her position.
Greater Long Island was unable to reach Mara, who previously served as the general music and chorus teacher at Thomas J. Lahey Elementary School in the Harborfields Central School District. Emails were sent to her district and personal email addresses, but she has not yet responded.
Fisher could not be reached for comment.
Many people from inside and outside the community have taken to social media to criticize Mara and suggest her firing. Still, Mara has drawn defenders who say she has never brought politics into the classroom.
“That’s not Democrat Party or Republican Party, I just believe people have the right to say what they want to say,” one parent told News12.
In comments posted on Facebook, some echoed that sentiment.
“Everyone has a right to their opinions. Don’t like what you hear? Don’t watch. Don’t listen,” Judy Arpino-Prizzi wrote in the comments section of a post on 27east’s Facebook page.
Another commenter, Jessica McHugh, noted that Kirk himself had dismissed gun deaths as an acceptable “cost” to preserve the Second Amendment, adding, “No one is celebrating Kirk’s death … I stand with this teacher and everyone else who speaks truth to power.”
Others said Mara crossed a line.
“My issue is simple. She is a teacher. Just as I say to actors and athletes. We are paying for your professional work, not your opinion,” Kelly McLaren wrote.
Melissa Bunshaft added that “Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences.”
“Imagine being hired to work in a well funded school district only to be dumb enough to make videos like this and post them on social media?!” Tara Stewart- Jacobs wrote, commenting on Fisher’s post.
The Westhampton Beach school district released a public statement acknowledging the controversy but declined to comment further.
“The district is aware of the matter being referenced; however, we are unable to discuss this as it is a matter of personnel,” the statement read.
Top images: (Clockwise from left) Laura Mara speaking on TikTok, Westhampton Beach High School via Google Maps and Westhampton Beach mother Wendy Fisher with her husband in a photo posted to Facebook.
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