A Certain Kind of Hero

Tina Certain didn’t flinch, and Florida’s phony “free speech” enforcers couldn’t handle it.

Florida’s State Board of Education spent the week doing what has now become routine: using state power to harass, intimidate, and silence free speech while insisting they’re defending it. Their latest target was Alachua County School Board member Tina Certain, hauled in over a Facebook comment she made about Charlie Kirk.

Kirk’s murder was horrific. Authorities say the suspect is a young white man described by classmates as a “Reddit kid” shaped by online nihilism and a conservative, gun-heavy Utah upbringing. The right immediately moved to turn Kirk into a martyr and a symbol of bold truth-telling.

His memorial became an immigrant-bashing rally. Overnight, any mention of his long record of racist or incendiary rhetoric was treated as disrespect. Not because they opposed his rhetoric. They approved of it. They had promoted it for years.

What they couldn’t tolerate was anyone refusing to play along with the rebranding. They knew precisely what Kirk said when he was alive, and they were fine with it. What they wanted now was silence, or agreement, while they rewrote the story for political use.

So they went looking for targets. Tina Certain was an easy one for them to single out.

She explained her post this way at the hearing: “The ‘uneducated white boy’ was rhetoric. It was a rhetorical use of race reflecting the same racial framing that Charlie Kirk himself frequently used in public comments. He openly questioned the intelligence and qualifications of Black pilots, Black women, and other educated Black professionals.”

She added:

“It expressed a viewpoint on the rhetoric of Charlie Kirk, a public figure whose statements and influence were widely debated. And while there are awards being given out now, there are a good sector of society who do not hold him in high regard for the things that he stood for. And I’m one of them.”

Here is the important thing: She wasn’t required to attend the hearing. She showed up anyway. And she wore a shirt stating a basic historical fact the Board has spent a year trying to blur:

“SLAVERY DID NOT BENEFIT BLACK PEOPLE.”

It was a direct response to the Board’s curriculum language suggesting enslaved people gained “skills” that could “benefit” them. They questioned the shirt. She didn’t back down.

Throughout the hearing she made the point that this wasn’t about professionalism or board policy. It was about punishing a viewpoint the Board didn’t share.

“It’s deeply concerning that an individual elected official is being called before an appointed Commissioner and State Board of Education for a personal social-media comment that did not involve school board policy,” she said.
“I believe it raises serious questions about viewpoint discrimination… for expressing a perspective that you all disagree with.”

She also made clear the basic overreach in what they were attempting:

“Why should I have to explain what I said on my personal Facebook page, on my personal time, using my personal device, when I have First Amendment rights and I’m elected?”

She answered every question directly. She didn’t soften her comments to ease their discomfort. She didn’t treat their outrage as legitimate. She stayed consistent while they cycled through the same points, hoping to pressure her into retreat.

The hearing made one thing obvious: their version of free speech only applies when the speaker is on their team.

Tina Certain refused to play that game. She told the truth about Kirk, about Florida’s curriculum, and about the state’s attempt to punish her for saying what they didn’t want heard. They thought they were taking her to the woodshed, but it was Tina Certain who was taking them to school.