A Jacksonville artist/teacher pulled from the classroom after posting on Facebook about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing is fighting a state law and Duval County Public Schools policy used against her.
Hope McMath sued the school district
nine months ago but changed her lawsuit September 21 as she continues seeking to be reinstated after an administrative law judge shot down a proposal to revoke her teaching license.The suit in Jacksonville’s federal court now asks Senior U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger to declare a district rule regulating teacher use of social media and the law letting Florida’s Education Practices Commission revoke or suspend a teacher’s license “unconstitutional on their face.”
Successfully challenging either
the state law or district policy would have major consequences in Jacksonville classrooms and changing the commission’s powers would impact teachers and school systems across the state.
During a news conference September 22, McMath said she hoped the lawsuit would feed a message to young people that “when wrong things happen, and people stand up and push back, right can win.”
McMath, who taught Advance Placement art history part-time, was removed after state and school district began investigations over anonymous complaints about her having posted on Facebook after Kirk was shot in September 2025.
Former Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas signed a 2025 complaint saying there was reason to think McMath was “guilty of gross immorality or an act involving moral turpitude.” But an administrative law judge, G.W. Chisenhall, ruled September 18 he found no evidence that McMath had done anything to bring “public disgrace or disrespect” to herself or the teaching profession, recommending the state commission dismiss the complaint.
McMath, who said she would like to return to teaching, said her job was eliminated in July. She said that Douglas Anderson ― which U.S. News & World Report this year ranked #36 in the state for academic performance among public high schools ― isn’t offering AP art history for the first time in years.
Responding to a September 18 query about McMath’s job status, a school district spokeswoman said September 21 that “we will look into this and follow up with you as soon as we can.”
The updated lawsuit also continued arguments that McMath’s attorney, John Phillips, advanced earlier that officials at the Florida Department of Education facilitated efforts of someone from the Duval County chapter of Moms for Liberty, an education activist group, to unjustly target McMath, who at times has been a visible advocate for progressive political causes.
The new version of the suit also added a defendant, Jacksonville attorney Ellye Smith Aull, whom it labeled as “the principal of the unincorporated association M4L-Duval.” Aull didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
The Duval chapter isn’t legally a separate organization and problems serving legal notice of the lawsuit led to a Moms for Liberty lawyer seeking to quash McMath’s earlier case. Aull waived service of a summons for the suit’s new version on September 22.
McMath said she would like to return to teaching but that the legal case affects more than just her.
“Our children, my students, are watching. They have been from Day One," she said. "What are the adults in the room going to do?”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Still hoping to teach in DCPS again, artist Hope McMath shifts lawsuit
