A Teacher Celebrated Charlie Kirk’s Assassination. His School Is Charging Parents $117,000 for Details About His Classes

When Rhode Island high school teacher Benjamin Fillo posted a now-viral TikTok celebrating conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Fillo’s students asked administrators to hold him accountable. Fillo had a pattern of exhibiting political bias in his classroom, students said.

Barrington Public Schools (BPS) put Fillo on paid leave pending an investigation into his “alleged social media activity.” But local mom Nicole Solas wants concrete answers about what Fillo teaches students in the classroom and which materials he assigns in class — and the district just put a $117,000 price tag on her request.

With her lawyers at the Goldwater Institute, Solas submitted a public records request for curriculum materials that are used to teach “children who are entitled to an education free from indoctrination.” BPS quoted her $117,130.50 to procure thousands of electronic records related to Fillo’s instructional and supplementary materials, handouts, assignments, worksheets, and more. 

“We’ve seen countless teachers on social media celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk, but I think it’s important to go a step further where teachers claim, ‘This is just my free speech in public,’ to say, ‘Well, is it really just free speech in public?'” Solas told National Review. “Or are you actually letting your political views bleed into your classroom instruction?”

After Fillo’s video went viral, a Barrington student who said she took an American Studies course with the teacher accused him of inserting political bias into lessons.

“When he taught the civil war, he claimed that modern Republicans would support slavery, and this is certainly false information and extremely politically biased,” the student said. “It’s completely wrong to state this in the first place. He is favoring one side over the other and is trying to persuade a political view into our learning.”

An experienced education advocate, Solas submitted the request after BPS parents reached out and asked her for help following the release of Fillo’s video.

“This is a man who hated the LGBTQ community, who hated women’s rights, who hated democracy. Who thought that he was a big man cause he went to college campuses, debated young college students and thought he proved how tough he was with his words that he studied ahead of time,” Fillo said in the TikTok video. “What a piece of garbage. This is what happens.”

“Bye, Charlie,” he added.

Solas’s lawyers sent a letter this week to the school district demanding that BPS revise or remove the cost estimate. The materials, as well as Fillo’s conduct as a teacher, are matters of great public interest, lawyers said in the letter.

“Curriculum materials in a public school district are the most fundamental record that sheds light on how public schools do their jobs, literally, what you are teaching the kids,” Solas said. “And if Barrington School District is putting a $117,000 price tag on the most fundamental record that sheds light on how schools do their jobs, well, then we have no transparency.”

“I don’t think there is anything more important and fundamental when it comes to public school than just knowing what your kids are being taught,” she added.

If the district does not lower its fee, Solas and her lawyers will file a suit against BPS, she told NR.

“I don’t see how a school district can reasonably choose to litigate this when it comes to balancing what the public interest is, how much it’s going to cost, and the impact on their school district,” she said. “This teacher is still on administrative leave, and had he been fired, I think it would be less likely that my investigation would continue. I think there would be significantly less public interest if this teacher were fired. The longer they keep him on paid leave, which is really just paid vacation, the longer the spotlight will be on them.”

Fillo was also the co-president of his local National Education Association chapter. The union removed Fillo from his post pending BPS’s investigation.

“Our colleague and co-president made a statement on his personal TikTok account that has receive widespread negative attention,” Nahum Mitnik, the co-president of NEA-Barrington said. “We are deeply disappointed by his actions. Let me be clear: We unequivocally condemn violence in all its forms. Violence has no place in our schools, our district, or our society.”