Kane County Reporter

District 300 School Board President Nancy Zettler is facing backlash after posting on Facebook that Charlie Kirk's assassination was "karma" related—a move that has prompted critics like Laurie Parman, Illinois House District 66 candidate, to question Zettler's leadership abilities. 

“When you blame a good moral man for his own murder, you have lost your moral authority to lead in a school setting,” Parman told the Kane County Reporter. 

“The first thing I thought when I heard this today was ‘karma, it’s a $itch,’” Zettler wrote in reaction to the Sept. 10 killing of Kirk at a Utah university event where his wife and two small children were also in attendance.   

Zettler's comment was “liked” by fellow D300 board members Patrick Malia, Leslie Lamarca and Tola Makinde.

Parman, a retired educator and Republican challenger for the seat held by Democrat Suzanne Ness, said she was “aghast” at the response from officials who are responsible for leading students.   

“I am personally very disappointed in you,” Parman said in the post. “I very much enjoyed our personal interactions in the past. I found you to be a worthy opponent who made me think about my own positions. I always gave you respect and dignity, and you seemed to appreciate that. It was exactly that respect and dignity that Charlie gave to those who disagreed with him. Unfortunately, I believe this grievous error in judgement is disqualifying.” 

Parman’s comments are part of a broader, nationwide reckoning over reactions to Kirk’s murder. 

Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck and killed, allegedly by a leftist “Transtifa” supporter, while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University. 

The CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA and a Wheeling High School graduate, Kirk built a national conservative movement with over 3,500 student chapters and played a significant role in youth outreach for President Donald Trump.

Parman is not alone in her condemnation of Zettler’s post. 

D300 Board Member Steve Fiorentino has publicly distanced himself from Zettler’s remarks and is now calling for a special board meeting to allow community members to directly voice their concerns.

“I am disturbed and disgusted at the words recently written by a fellow board member,” Fiorentino said in a Facebook post. 

“I want to be clear, these words and sentiment in no way represent my beliefs or values. Having said that, I am writing my feelings as an individual board member and these comments are not meant to represent the Board of Education or any others. I want to insure you that I remain committed to a safe and inclusive environment for all students, teachers and staff. I am calling for a special meeting and requesting that we appoint a President/Leader pro tem for the meeting. This meeting will allow students, staff and community members to share their concerns directly to the Board of Education.”

“I, too, am appalled and disgusted that D300 Board President Nancy Zettler and three other Board members (Patrick Malia, Leslie LeMarca and Tola Babalola Makinde) celebrated the murder of Charlie Kirk,” Algonquin resident Kim Stevenson said on Facebook. 

“Nancy Zettler posted ‘Karma is a $itch’ and the other three members ‘liked’ what she posted. Her sentence was vindictive, celebratory, cruel, insensitive, judgmental and provocative. In my opinion, their actions are shameful, dehumanizing, and completely indefensible.” 

Sleepy Hollow resident Barbie Williams echoed concerns over Zettler’s fitness for public office, insisting the issue transcends party lines.

“The D300 Board President, Nancy Zettler who actually posted and cheered the shooting of Charlie Kirk and her colleagues even reacted with (thumbs up) emojis,” Williams said on Facebook. 

“This is NOT about politics. It’s about basic decency and safety. No one who celebrates violence should be anywhere near our kids—period.”

Williams added that despite no longer having children in D300 schools, she intends to protest. 

“Even though my kids are grown, they went through D300 schools, and I still pay taxes that fund this district," she said. "That’s why I will be there and why we should all support these parents. Our tax dollars should not be paying leaders who cheer violence. Our community and children deserve better. #d300.” 

Local advocacy group Kane County Citizens for Less Taxes is helping coordinate a demonstration outside the D300 Central Office, urging residents to bring signs, flags, and bullhorns.

“Assassination is not Karma it is murder and this rotten school board president must resign,” the group wrote on Facebook. 

The protest is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. at the District 300 Central Office, 2550 Harnish Drive, Algonquin.

“My first reaction was disbelief,” Parman said about Kirk's assassination. “This cannot happen—Charlie is going to pull through. If enough of us pray hard enough, we will get a miracle…but we didn’t get the miracle we prayed for. Oh yes, God is still in control, but His ways are higher than ours. I will be looking over the horizon for the miracle He wanted us to have.” 

“I spent the afternoon close to my family holding hands with my grown up son, crying tears of grief for a wife who will never see her husband until she reaches heaven, for two children who will grow up with a legend instead of a father, and for a country who has lost more than they could ever realize.” 

But her sorrow turned to alarm when public figures began to respond, in her view, with cruelty and ideological spite.

Zettler’s post is just one of many controversial reactions to Kirk’s death.

MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd was fired for his on-air reaction to the assassination. 

“He's been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech,” Dowd said just minutes after the shooting. “You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place.”

Disciplinary actions have continued to ripple across multiple sectors in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. 

In the airline industry, both American and Delta Airlines suspended pilots who posted inflammatory remarks on social media. 

At the federal level, Secret Service agent Anthony Pough was placed on leave for comments made online. 

In education, faculty members at Middle Tennessee State, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Mississippi were either suspended or terminated over similar conduct. 

Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz has launched a statewide investigation into teachers accused of mocking Kirk’s death. 

In the retail sector, Office Depot terminated a manager who refused to print posters for a vigil honoring Kirk. 

Meanwhile, Clemson University in South Carolina condemned political violence but declined to discipline staff flagged for inappropriate posts, a decision that led the South Carolina Freedom Caucus to demand the university’s defunding.

Locally, Parman said the tone of rhetoric has spiraled to the point of reaching students. She shared the story of a District 300 middle schooler who wore an American flag sweater to class the day after Kirk’s assassination, coinciding with the anniversary of 9/11.

“Her teacher raised their voice to her in a condescending manner, exclaiming ‘you are not wearing that today! Not in my house!’” Parman said.

“As a 30 year retired teacher I never saw my students a ‘sitting ducks’ in my classroom, destined to hear my political viewpoint, or what vitamins I might be selling, etc. Teachers simply do not have that luxury, and by the way—it’s not your house. Can you imagine a child not yet even 12 years old making it through the day after hearing that? Actually, I can. Yet, this brave little girl made it home to tell her mom this disturbing story. The end of the story is in that mom’s court. She passed this story on to me first hand.” 

Parman called on parents to remain vigilant.

“Train your children to bring their wounds home to you so you can process them as this mom did and not carry them alone as I did,” she said. “I can still see the poisonous second grade teacher… because I carried it alone. I devoted a lifetime to giving better to my students as they came into their house everyday.” 

Parman spoke on Kirk’s upbringing in Illinois.

“I graduated from Wheeling High School, as did Charlie, so I completely understand the midwest, grassroots soul of Charlie Kirk,” she said. “From my vantage point I recognize a distinct lack of understanding about the mid west. Often minimized as ‘flyover country,’ the Wheeling area has often shown us that it could be a launching pad for some of the greatest individuals of our time.” 

She described the Midwest not as a political afterthought, but as a quiet crucible where values are formed and character is forged, something she says Kirk embodied throughout his life.

“Mid-westerners grow humbly in the incubator without fanfare or notice,” Parman said. “They are grounded in family and morality; simple goodness without expectation of what they some day might become. Then one day they they emerge from the incubator of humility and they take the world by storm. This is the story of Charlie Kirk. His time in this great, invisible, humble, moral incubator is why his enemies will never understand the rise of great men.”

She also rejected suggestions that Kirk’s rhetoric incited hostility. 

“The problem for them is that this time they could not have been farther from the truth about Charlie Kirk, and EVERYONE KNOWS IT,” Parman said. “Charlie was the kindest, most genuine, ‘you before me’ individual in the public space.” 

Parman also criticized Gov. J.B. Pritzker for pointing blame at President Trump’s rhetoric inciting violence. 

“A common thread is, they generally attach the things they are themselves are doing to their enemies,” she said. “For example, conservatives are often called fascists by the left, while it is the behavior of the left to exercise the levers of power to exclude everyone and everything that doesn’t agree with them.”

Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and their two young children.