‘Shocked and saddened’: West Ada fires employee over social media post
The West Ada School District has fired a Meridian High School employee after she posted a video on social media regarding the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed Wednesday at Utah Valley University.
In a statement posted to Instagram on Thursday morning, the school district said that the employee’s conduct in posting the video “violated school and district policy” and that the district “does not endorse or condone the video in any way.”
“We were shocked and saddened by its content,” the statement said.
The district did not share any details about the video, but public records obtained by the Idaho Statesman show that the district received at least a dozen complaints as of Thursday morning about a video regarding the shooting of Kirk. A video circulating on social media and included in some of the complaints shows a woman in a Meridian Warriors T-shirt celebrating the shooting.
An email from West Ada Chief of Human Resources Renee Senander, in response to one of the complaints, obtained in the records request, stated, “We are aware of the video in question, and the matter was addressed (Wednesday) upon coming to our attention.”
The school district did not respond to multiple requests from the Statesman seeking to confirm the contents of the video and what position the former employee held. She was only identified by last name.
The Statesman also reached out to Meridian High School for comment and was directed to the district for all questions.
“We respectfully ask that the video not be shared further, as it does not reflect who we are as a school, school district, or community,” the Instagram post from the district stated. “West Ada remains committed to nurturing and supporting our students and families, and to addressing harmful actions thoughtfully, with care, and with a focus on doing what is right.”
In August, an employee of Eagle Hills Elementary School was no longer with the West Ada School District after officials learned of a “concerning” video that employee had allegedly posted online, the Statesman previously reported.
Student-teacher in Vallivue resigns over online comments
Another individual affiliated with a Treasure Valley school district has left their position following online comments regarding Kirk’s death. A spokesperson for the Vallivue School District, which mainly serves Nampa and Caldwell, told the Statesman by phone that a student-teacher placed at Lakevue Elementary School in Nampa emailed the school’s principal early Thursday morning to resign from their placement because of “unacceptable” online comments they made surrounding Kirk’s death.
“The individual was not an employee of the Vallivue School District,” district spokesperson Joey Palmer said. “That person proactively resigned their student-teaching position before we had an opportunity to act on it, but we still made contact and made it very clear that that student-teacher will no longer be affiliated with the Vallivue School District in any manner and on any campus from here on out.”
Palmer said student-teachers are placed with the district by the universities they attend, and that both the university and Vallivue conducted a background check on the individual.
The school district reached out to Lakevue parents Thursday to say that the individual “will no longer be on school campus.”
“Hate speech does not represent Vallivue or what we stand for as a community,” the email, shared with the Statesman by the district, said.
“It goes without saying, this is absolutely unacceptable,” Palmer said.
This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 11:27 AM.
