OSKALOOSA — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand expressed support for the Oskaloosa School Board that voted to fire a teacher who compared conservative activist Charlie Kirk to a Nazi on social media after his slaying.
“In terms of what he said, I’d be pretty uncomfortable with my kids having teachers that celebrated someone’s murder,” Sand told the Des Moines Register at an Oskaloosa town Monday, Sept. 22.
Kirk was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University Sept. 10.
Teacher Matthew Kargol, whose Facebook account appears to have since been deleted, posted “1 Nazi down” in connection with Kirk’s death, court records confirm.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand speaks at an Oskaloosa town hall Sept. 22.
More: Oskaloosa school board votes to fire teacher accused of calling Charlie Kirk a Nazi
The Oskaloosa School Board voted unanimously to end Kargol’s employment at a Sept. 17 meeting.
The next day, Kargol filed a lawsuit accusing the district and its superintendent of violating his First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit alleges Superintendent Mike Fisher responded to the incident “not by examining whether the post had any impact on Mr. Kargol’s ability to teach or the district’s ability to provide educational services in an efficient and effective manner, but by condemning Mr. Kargol’s viewpoint.”
Sand said he trusts the legal system to adjudicate the issue.
“Iowa’s got a good court system — a good merit-based judicial selection system,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll figure out what direction that’s supposed to go in.”
More: Iowa teacher fired over Charlie Kirk post sues school district for infringing free speech
Kargol is one of more than 100 people across the country who face repercussions for remarks they made after Kirk’s killing, according to an analysis by USA TODAY.
Sand said individual teachers will need to weigh questions about what speech is covered by the First Amendment and whether it crosses a line.
“I guess that’s going to have to be a question that each teacher is going to have to figure out as a matter of their own conscience,” he said.
Sand called Kirk’s murder “horrific” and “unacceptable,” and he said that “grief is a process.”
“We debate people’s legacies for hundreds of years,” he said. “You don’t need to do those things when people are still feeling a very raw sense of loss.”
Sand also pushed back on the claims from some Republicans that the issue of political violence stems primarily from the left.
“The truth is political violence in America is almost exclusively left-wing violence directed at people on the right,” Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for U.S. Senate, recently told reporters. “I don’t think it’s an American problem. I think it’s a left-wing problem.”
Republican President Donald Trump has also said the “radical left” has been “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
Sand said both parties could use some self-reflection following Kirk’s death.
“There’s some great wisdom in the New Testament that says you should remove the beam in your own eye before pointing out the speck in your neighbor’s,” he said. “That’s part of the reason that I’ve acknowledged that some folks on the left have had some, I think, inappropriate rhetoric in responses to this. I would suggest that political leaders on the right do the same.”
‘I’m not alone in saying we’re just tired. We just need something else’
Sand did not touch on the issue during his town hall, which drew several dozen people to Smokey Row Coffee in Oskaloosa. But he spoke at length, as he often does, about political civility.
“I think that there’s one word that we can use to describe our political system right now: broken,” he said. “It’s really simple to understand, too. Politicians understand that solving problems is hard, but you can get reelected if you just demonize your opponents enough. And so we end up in the situation where all the problems that we face grow, the number of problems that we face multiply, and we get more frustrated and more angry because things are getting worse.”
Sand asked for a show of hands from those who are Republicans, independents and Democrats, and he asked the crowd to applaud for each group. He encouraged an open dialogue and urged curiosity, not judgment, of those who might disagree.
He said it might “help us approach everybody else with a little bit more grace in our lives.”
Chrissy Rainey, a Tracy resident and registered Republican, said she thought Sand’s approach was “refreshing.”
“I just wanted to come and listen because I am politically fatigued at this point. I think we all are,” she said.
She said she plans to learn more about the candidates, but she said she’s “definitely open” to the idea of voting for Sand next year.
“I feel like it’s been about a decade of just — there’s always something,” she said. “There’s always something going on politically, and people are turning against each other, and we’re getting away from what it’s supposed to even mean to be in this democracy. So I think I’m not alone in saying we’re just tired. We just need something else.”
She said she’s most concerned about issues such as health care, mental health care, governmental fiscal responsibility and the rising cost of living.
“I feel like stress in 2025 is way different than what we had in 1995,” she said. “Like, families are stressed on a whole different level, and it’s just trickling down generation after generation and we’re seeing it in our kids.”
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Rob Sand expresses support for firing teacher over Charlie Kirk post
