Shaynon Scheidt #

Introduction #

Shaynon Scheidt is a former part-time biology instructor at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, who was fired in September 2025 after a student recorded him wishing death upon the family of political commentator Charlie Kirk during a class discussion held in the days following Kirk’s assassination. Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, had been shot and killed only days before, and vigils in his memory were being held across the country. The recording, made on a student’s cellphone while approximately twenty students were present in the room, captured Scheidt hoping that Kirk’s children, grandchildren, and every generation that followed them would die. The College of the Sequoias initially placed Scheidt on administrative leave while it investigated the incident, then moved to terminate him, notifying him of his dismissal within hours of discovering the behavior on September 11 and immediately replacing him as the instructor of record for his class.

Background Information #

Scheidt taught biology as a part-time instructor at the College of the Sequoias, a community college in Visalia, California, and per the local reporting on the incident he was also a part-time instructor at Fresno and Madera colleges. Little else about his personal or professional history has been established in the verified coverage of the case, which has focused almost entirely on the classroom remarks and the college’s response to them.

The setting for the controversy was the immediate aftermath of one of the most consequential political shootings in recent American history. Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed, and mourners gathered at vigils in his memory, including one in Orem, Utah, on September 11, 2025. In the days that followed, remarks by educators and media figures about Kirk’s death came under intense scrutiny across the country, with the same local outlet noting related cases in which an MSNBC analyst was reportedly fired after comments following the assassination and a Fresno State lecturer was placed on leave after inappropriate comments about Kirk’s death.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

The incident took place during a lab day class at the College of the Sequoias, with approximately twenty students in the room. As the class met in the wake of Kirk’s murder, Scheidt began discussing the assassination and expressed a wish for Kirk’s entire family line — including his children and grandchildren — to meet the same fate.

One student in the class was shocked when the professor began discussing Kirk’s assassination and started recording his comments with her cellphone. The words captured on that recording were: “Yeah, I hope every one of his family dies, and their children, and their grandchildren, and their grandchildren, and their grandchildren, to eternity.” The student who made the recording was appalled by what she had heard and left the class. The recording ultimately became the basis for the college’s intervention, transforming a remark made in front of roughly two dozen witnesses into documented evidence of the conduct that ended Scheidt’s position there.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

Once the recording came to light, the College of the Sequoias moved quickly. The college, along with its Public Information Officer, Human Resources department, and college leaders, opened an investigation into the incident and met on a Friday to determine how to proceed. The Public Information Officer stated that the school’s priority was ensuring the safety of the students who had been present in the classroom. Scheidt was placed on administrative leave pending that investigation and was scheduled to meet with administrators. In the meantime, another full-time faculty member volunteered to take over the course for the remainder of the semester, ensuring that the students’ schedules would not be disrupted and that classes would continue as normal.

The consequences did not stop at leave. The college announced that it had terminated the part-time biology instructor, and it acted with unusual speed: the instructor was notified of his termination within hours of the college discovering the behavior on September 11, and he was immediately replaced as the instructor of record in the class. The firing landed amid a broader national reckoning over public statements about Kirk’s assassination, in which the outlet’s related coverage noted an MSNBC analyst reportedly fired over comments following the killing and a Fresno State lecturer placed on leave for inappropriate remarks about Kirk’s death.

Current Status #

As of the college’s announcement, Shaynon Scheidt has been terminated from his position as a part-time biology instructor at the College of the Sequoias, and he was immediately replaced as the instructor of record for the class in which the remarks were made. The course itself continued under the substitute full-time faculty member who had volunteered to step in, with the college emphasizing that students’ schedules would not be disrupted for the remainder of the semester. No criminal charges or legal proceedings arising from the classroom remarks appear in the reporting on the case, and the coverage does not record any public statement from Scheidt himself responding to the recording or the termination. His scheduled meeting with administrators following his administrative leave was overtaken by the college’s decision to dismiss him outright.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The effect on Scheidt’s career was immediate and total at the institution where the remarks were made: within roughly a week of the assassination, he went from teaching a lab section of about twenty students to being terminated, replaced as instructor of record, and publicly identified in coverage of the firing. For a part-time instructor, whose employment rests on per-course contracts rather than a tenured or permanent appointment, the loss of the College of the Sequoias position carries consequences beyond a single campus, and the reporting noted that he had also taught at Fresno and Madera colleges, putting his standing at those institutions under the shadow of the same recording.

Beyond employment, the case illustrates how a single student cellphone recording can now end an academic career within hours. Scheidt’s dismissal was decided not through a drawn-out disciplinary process but by immediate notification on the day the college discovered the behavior, followed by an announcement that made the termination a matter of public record. His name is now attached to one of the most widely covered examples of the post-assassination wave of professional consequences for remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death, a period in which commentators and educators alike lost positions over things said in the days after the killing.