The local teachers union — NEA-Barrington — has asked Barrington High School teacher Ben Fillo to step down as union co-president while he is on paid administrative leave after posting a video to TikTok where he criticizes Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old conservative political speaker who was shot and killed during an event last week.

Nahum Mitnik, the other co-president of NEA-Barrington, spoke at the start of a Barrington School Committee meeting on Monday night, Sept. 15, and announced the change in union leadership. He did not mention Fillo by name, nor did any of the school committee members.

“Tonight, I want to share with you the sentiments I conveyed to our members on Friday afternoon,” Mitnik said. “We as a union believe it is important for you, and for the Barrington community as a whole to hear from us directly. 

“As you know, our colleague and co-president made a statement on his personal TikTok account that has receive widespread negative attention. 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.”

Mitnik went to announce that Jill Malafronte would step in as interim co-president while the teacher (Fillo) is on paid leave. 

“Like you, we are called to this profession with an unwavering commitment to students,” Mitnik said. “Our primary role is to teach and inspire and nothing should be allowed to distract from students learning. We want to thank the administration and local law enforcement for their strong presence throughout the district, which has helped provide a sense of security for staff and students alike.”

Earlier in the meeting, members of the Barrington School Committee voted 3-0 to hire attorney Matthew Oliverio of the firm Oliverio and Marcaccio LLP, to conduct an outside investigation into the social media posts that led to the administrative suspension. 

Officials said the decision to hire outside counsel was done because there has been a working relationship between the district’s regular legal counsel and Fillo. (Again, no district officials mentioned Fillo by name.)

Barrington School Committee Chairman TJ Peck allowed more than two hours of public comment about the personnel matter. Peck asked people to refrain from using anyone’s name while sharing their comments. Dozens of people shared their thoughts — some defended Fillo’s First Amendment rights and said the Barrington High School teacher has had a positive impact on students’ lives; others called for Fillo to be fired immediately and said no human being should ever celebrate the death of another person. 

The comments also encouraged district officials to revisit the school department’s policy on social media posts.

While many of the speakers were parents in the district, there were a handful of Barrington High School students who shared their thoughts. Peyton Hillier defended his teacher, while Faith Van Ness said she watched the TikTok video at the center of the controversy and called it “morally wrong.” Van Ness said she had had the teacher in class and when he taught a section on the Civil War he said modern day Republicans would support slavery. 

“This is wrong,” she said, adding that the teacher often added his political views to the lesson. 

Van Ness also shared an account of the teacher’s effort to have her change the topic of a paper she wanted to write because of her conservative political views. She said a classmate wrote a paper focused on a more liberal topic but was not questioned by the teacher. 

Geoff Turner, the assistant coach for the Barrington High School baseball team, said he was concerned about the teacher. He said the teacher changed students’ lives for the better. Turner said most of the TikTok video was entirely factual except for two opinionated comments shared. He later said the teacher deserves the district’s defense not suspicions. He also said Barrington schools owe the teacher an apology. 

Ann Strong said she was concerned that no other teachers had publicly denounced what the BHS teacher had said on his TikTok video. She said people cannot celebrate someone’s assassination. Strong said she was also deeply concerned that the district had not yet fired the teacher. 

“Paid leave is a vacation,” she said. 

Some parents told the school committee and administrators that they needed to act swiftly to ensure that another teacher would be hired to fill the gap left by the teacher on paid leave. Some also questioned the committee’s decision to spend more money to hire an attorney to investigate the situation. 

“It’s just common sense,” said one resident.