Schools tried to ban phones and avoid politics. Then came Charlie Kirk's assassination

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Some students watched the video in the middle of class. Others pulled out their phones as they walked out of school and found themselves watching the videos over and over. Some teachers interrupted lessons to discuss the horrific news.

Almost instantly after Charlie Kirk was assassinated Wednesday at Utah Valley University, the news — captured on video in grisly detail — sent shockwaves through classrooms everywhere. Because no matter teens' political opinions, everyone knew Kirk.

In high school classes in Spanish Fork, Utah, chatter spread fast Wednesday, as students learned of the shooting and began to wonder if Kirk would live or die. A cellphone ban meant many students didn’t learn of Kirk’s fate until the final bell — pushing tough conversations in class to the next day.

“By the end of the day, I was worn out,” said English teacher Andrew Apsley. He discussed the shooting with each of his four classes Thursday at Landmark High School, about 15 miles south of UVU.

In the current political climate and with new cellphone bans, schools have tried to push social media and controversial topics to the sidelines, saying classes should focus on basic academics. Kirk’s shooting upended all that.

Graphic footage of Kirk’s shooting on the Utah college campus was available almost immediately online, captured by cellphones from several angles. The videos, in slow motion and real-time speed, show a direct view of Kirk being shot, his body recoiling and blood gushing from his neck. The videos were easy to find on X, TikTok and Instagram.

Many teens say they feel traumatized by what they saw. They couldn’t escape the videos popping up on their social media feeds or being passed to them by friends and classmates. Some teens posted warnings that urged people not to click on the Kirk videos, saying they wished the visuals had come with trigger warnings.

Apsley's 19-year-old child received a gruesome video of Kirk's death in a message from a friend. His child has autism and has difficulty processing emotions, so the video was “pretty traumatic,” Apsley said. That incident became a teaching moment for Apsley's students.

“I know we want to be first. I know we want to be the one to share the information that other people rely on,” Apsley recalled telling his classes. “But at the same time, not everyone is well-equipped to handle something as graphic and violent as that.”

Students tuned in everywhere, highlighting the global reality of social media.

In Canada, Aidan Groves was in a college writing class when he saw a headline on Reddit that Kirk had been shot. He had not shared Kirk's political views, yet “my heart sank, and I was immediately on edge,” said Groves, a student at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary. He quickly swiped through comments, feeling overcome by horror and dread. Even so, he left his classroom to watch the video.

Groves, 19, grew up watching his dad play video games with violent imagery, but he was struck by the video’s immediacy and the crowd’s frantic reaction. “I’ve never seen anybody die, and immediately everybody in this crowd had just witnessed that,” he said.

When Groves returned to class 10 minutes later, everyone was distracted by the news of the shooting. Students passed around their phones. Some of his classmates expressed shock. Others who weren’t fond of Kirk’s views cracked jokes.

Through it all, the professor carried on with his lesson.

Whether students admired Kirk or not, teenagers across the world knew him from his social media presence. A right-wing activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, Kirk’s savvy use of social videos, capturing his pithy responses to questions from liberals, raised his profile at speaking events on college campuses and online, especially among young men.

San Francisco teen Richie Trovao didn’t agree with all of Kirk’s ideas, but admired how the activist “really stood on his beliefs.” Trovao, 17, had thought about getting politically involved himself, but the assassination has given him second thoughts. He worries that speaking his mind could put him at risk.

The high school senior was on Discord when a friend messaged that Kirk had been shot. Trovao didn’t believe it at first, so he went to X to confirm, and a video of Kirk's death autoplayed. His stomach turned.

“I never thought I would see something like that happen to someone who’s just basically an influencer,” Trovao said. Especially shocking: Some social media comments seemed to celebrate Kirk's death.

Reaction to the video has highlighted the political divide and polarization that exists among American youth, said Connecticut high school senior Prakhar Vatsa. That was the main topic of discussion among classmates in his AP Government class after Kirk’s death.

Raised in an era of easy access to violent imagery, Vatsa, 17, said he wasn't too affected when he saw the video while scrolling social media, because he isn't too sensitive to gore.

“It was a bit traumatizing, but I’ve seen worse,” he said.

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