Dave Handler #

Introduction #

Dave Handler is a former teacher at Minnesota Connections Academy, an online high school, who lost his job after the September 10, 2025 assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk because of a single Facebook post. According to The Intercept, Handler wrote in the since-deleted post that he was not going to mourn a “Nazi,” shared an article listing some of the offensive things Kirk had said over the years, and then deactivated his account. The message from human resources arrived, by his account, as he was getting ready to teach a class on the First Amendment. “I post basically 10 words and an article, and I lost my career,” he told The Intercept. His case appears in the outlet’s September 10, 2026 report, “Fired After the Charlie Kirk Revenge Purge, They’re Still Unemployed,” on people who remained out of work a year after being fired for criticizing Kirk.

Background Information #

Handler taught at Minnesota Connections Academy, an online high school, until Kirk was killed. Kirk, whom The Intercept described as a far-right podcaster, was shot in the throat by a lone gunman at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, and killed within minutes. According to The Intercept, more than 600 people had their lives upended in the crackdown that followed, a revenge campaign against anyone critical of Kirk led by the Trump administration. Vice President JD Vance said anyone perceived to be “celebrating” Kirk’s murder should be called out — “And hell, call their employer,” he said on his podcast. Lists circulated online naming people accused of celebrating Kirk’s death, making it easy to harass them en masse, and The Intercept characterized the episode as one of the biggest mass censorship campaigns in modern history.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Allegations. This section rests on Handler’s own account and The Intercept’s reporting. His firing is a documented employment action per his account, but the full circumstances were never tested in court, no charge or ruling exists, and his former employer has not publicly commented.

On Facebook, Handler had written that he was not going to mourn a “Nazi,” according to The Intercept’s account of the since-deleted post. He shared an article listing some of the offensive things Kirk had said over the years, then deactivated his account. By that point, it was too late. The message from HR came as he was getting ready to teach a class on the First Amendment to his students. According to Handler, he was told that someone had emailed the corporation who owned his school to complain, and soon he was out of a job. He summarized the disproportion between the post and the punishment in a single sentence: “I post basically 10 words and an article, and I lost my career.” The Intercept reported that none of the employers of the people it profiled in the report — Handler’s among them — responded to its requests for comment.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The Intercept placed Handler’s firing within a purge that fell hardest on ordinary workers rather than public figures. Melody Fowler-Green, an attorney who, according to The Intercept, represents several people fired in the wake of the Kirk killing — the report does not say whether she represents Handler — described the pattern to the outlet. “My clients really were not high-income earners; we’re talking about support staff,” she said. “A lot of the people who lost their jobs, they are people who are not in positions of power.” Handler fits that description: he was a classroom teacher whose employer acted after a single emailed complaint, with no reported public campaign on his behalf or effort to reverse the decision described in the report. Unlike the handful of people The Intercept identified who secured attorneys and got their jobs back, Handler never made it to court at all.

Current Status #

As of The Intercept’s reporting published September 10, 2026 — the most recent account available — Handler remained out of full-time work nearly a year after his firing. He had found only some part-time work, and his girlfriend, who is also a teacher, had been able to help support them both. No reinstatement has been reported, and no lawsuit or legal claim in his case has been announced, because he does not have the money to hire a lawyer.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The firing ended Handler’s teaching career at Minnesota Connections Academy and, a year later, his working life had not recovered. He told The Intercept that his girlfriend’s income as a teacher has kept them afloat while he pieced together part-time work, but that the loss still stings. The financial aftermath compounds itself: without a lawyer he cannot challenge the firing, and without a job he cannot afford one. His case stands in The Intercept’s report as an example of the purge’s quiet math — a since-deleted post of “basically 10 words and an article,” one emailed complaint to a corporation, and a teaching career gone.