By Sam Parsons
The Oskaloosa Community School District is now being sued as a result of their firing of OHS art teacher Matt Kargol this week.
The district says they were made aware of the lawsuit yesterday, which was filed as Kargol v. Oskaloosa Community School District in federal district court. In a public statement, the school district said that the school board acted on superintendent Mike Fisher’s recommendation to terminate Kargol’s contract, and that the matter was handled in accordance with applicable federal and state law and board policy.
The district added that they would not provide any further comment due to the pending litigation and the fact that this is a personnel matter.
Kargol’s contract with the district was officially terminated by the school board in a special meeting on Wednesday evening. The decision was made in response to a controversial social media post shared by Kargol last week following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk: Kargol had posted the text, “1 Nazi down,” to his personal Facebook profile.
Kargol’s lawsuit claims that the comment was “rhetorical hyperbole about a widely reported public event,” and that Fisher was invoking his own personal ideology in his decision.
The board cited “just cause” as their basis for terminating Kargol’s contract, as well as the framework established by Iowa Code Chapter 279.
