Kansas School Tells Students Charlie Kirk and President Trump Are “Not a Hero” and Orders Students NOT To Tell Their Parents

A Kansas elementary school crossed a constitutional line that should alarm every parent in America.

A teacher asked the class to name their heroes, but when students said Charlie Kirk and President Trump were their heroes, they were scolded. After censoring students who identified conservative figures as role models, administrators at Marshall Elementary School in Eureka did something even worse: They instructed sixth-graders not to tell their parents about what happened in the classroom.

Let that sink in. School officials told children to keep problems away from their parents.

This case represents one of the most brazen attacks on parental rights and students’ free speech we’ve seen – and we’ve seen plenty. Just a few months ago, the ACLJ defended a Hawaii teacher who was disciplined for allowing students to discuss Charlie Kirk and President Trump on Constitution Day. Now, in Kansas, students are being told outright that conservative voices should be silenced – and that parents shouldn’t know about it.

What Happened in the Classroom

A guidance counselor named Kacey Countryman assigned sixth-graders a project called “Find Your Voice” as part of the “Leader in Me” program. Students were asked to identify their role models and write them on a whiteboard for class discussion.

When a student named Charlie Kirk as a role model, Ms. Countryman became visibly uncomfortable. She refused to allow the name on the board, stating loudly that Kirk was “not a hero.” When the student teacher had already begun writing his name, Ms. Countryman ordered it erased. Another student selected President Donald J. Trump as a role model. Ms. Countryman grew even angrier, stating that students could not write political or religious figures on the board at all.

Yet football players were permitted. Classmates’ names were allowed. No restriction was placed on potentially controversial secular figures. Only religious and political figures were excluded from public acknowledgment on the board.

The cruel irony? An assignment titled “Find Your Voice” became a lesson in which voices would be silenced.

The “Don’t Tell Your Parents” Directive

When parents complained about this viewpoint discrimination, the school’s response made everything worse. Following a supposed “apology” to students, Principal Stacy Coulter addressed the sixth-grade class and, according to multiple consistent student reports, instructed them that in the future they should bring concerns to school officials – not their parents. The principal stated that the school should also be considered their family.

This isn’t education. This is indoctrination. And it’s a direct assault on the parent-child relationship.

When confronted, Principal Coulter initially denied making the statement, then deflected by claiming it was taken out of context. But multiple students consistently reported hearing this directive. Schools don’t get to insert themselves between parents and children. That’s not their role. That’s not their right.

The Constitutional Violations Are Clear

The Supreme Court established long ago that students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” By creating a forum for student expression with an assignment called “Find Your Voice,” then excluding conservative political viewpoints while permitting others, Marshall Elementary engaged in textbook viewpoint discrimination.

The school’s justification? That allowing discussion of Charlie Kirk or President Trump would create an “unsafe” environment or provoke disagreement. This is an unconstitutional heckler’s veto – silencing speech because others might disagree with it. Teaching students to engage respectfully with opposing viewpoints is a core function of public education, not a threat to classroom safety.

Moreover, by prohibiting religious figures as role models while permitting secular ones, the school discriminated based on religious viewpoint in violation of the Free Exercise Clause.

But the instruction to students not to report concerns to their parents strikes at something even more fundamental. Parents have a constitutional right to direct their children’s upbringing, recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor . Parents cannot exercise this right if schools instruct children to hide problems from them.

What’s at Stake

This case is about whether schools will respect constitutional boundaries or continue to treat students as the Supreme Court warned, as “closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate.”

The ACLJ has filed a federal discrimination complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Education, urging a comprehensive investigation into Unified School District 389’s policies and practices. We’re seeking formal findings that the school engaged in religious and political viewpoint discrimination and violated fundamental parental rights.

Every parent should be asking: If this can happen in Kansas, can it happen in my child’s school? The answer is yes – unless we fight back. If you are a parent who experienced this incident in Kansas or a similar violation of rights, we urge you to contact us at ACLJ.org/HELP.