Death threats to teachers after MAGA claims their Halloween costumes mocked Charlie Kirk

Staff at an Arizona high school have been harassed, attacked online and received several death threats after falsely accusing a group of teachers of wearing Halloween costumes that allegedly mocked the assassination of TPUSA co-founder Charlie Kirk.

On Friday, members of Sinega High School’s math department wore white T-shirts with the words “Problem Solved” written on them in black letters. A picture of the group was posted on the Vail School District’s Facebook page. District Superintendent John Carrot said in a statement that no students or parents complained about the uniforms during the school day.

Then, on Saturday, Andrew Kluth, who was an executive producer on The Charlie Kirk Show, posted the image on X. [Vail School District] “They deserve to be famous and fired,” Culott wrote.

Culotte noted that the white T-shirts closely resembled the “freedom” T-shirts that Kirk was found wearing while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10.

Kolvet’s post went viral and had nearly 10 million views before it was taken down Tuesday after WIRED contacted him.

Immediately after Cullott’s post was published, Sienga High School was bombarded with social media posts, comments, direct messages, emails and at least one voicemail containing racial slurs, calls for teachers to be fired, personal information about school staff and outright threats of violence. The school shared the messages with WIRED.

The school district immediately responded to the allegations, explaining on Facebook that the uniforms were not a reference to Kirk’s assassination and that the math department had in fact worn the same uniforms a year earlier.

“We would like to clarify that these shirts were part of a math-themed Halloween costume meant to show how to solve difficult math problems,” superintendent Carruth wrote. “These shirts were never intended to target any person, event or political issue.” The Vail School District provided WIRED with a copy of an Oct. 31, 2024, email showing a picture of the same uniforms.

While Collette confirmed Carrot’s statement and admitted in a post on Saturday that the dresses had been worn the previous year, she did not delete her original post.

“Generally it’s a very weird outfit for teachers, but after what happened to Charlie, I’m totally bummed they’re wearing it again,” Kluth wrote. “I don’t believe for a second that they are all innocent.”