McFate

TRAER — North Tama teacher Christine (Chris) McFate remains on paid administrative leave as the district continues its investigation into a social media post she made last month in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

On Thursday, Sept. 12, two days after Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at a public event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, North Tama Superintendent John Cain sent a letter to district families explaining a staff member had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the district’s review into a social media post he or she had made. The following Monday (Sept. 16), Cain confirmed to the newspaper in an email the staff member in question was McFate, the district’s K-12 vocal music teacher.

On the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 3, North Tama School Business Official Sara Forrester told the newspaper in an email there had been “no change” in McFate’s employment status and that she remained on paid administrative leave. That same day, Cain told the newspaper via email he planned to “limit my comments on our employee situation,” but confirmed the school board was holding a “closed session on Monday morning to discuss this topic.”

This past Monday (Oct. 6), the North Tama school board held a special meeting beginning at 7 a.m. in the main office conference room. The meeting lasted 55 minutes, per Forrester, and included several action items including an agreement with Heartland AEA for the talented and gifted program; change order requests; an attorney-client fee contract for the PowerSchool class action lawsuit filed following the company’s 2024 data breach; review and possible approval of the existing roof coating bid. The agenda also included a closed session for a personnel matter, citing Iowa Code 21.5(1)(i): To evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance, or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation and that individual requests a closed session.”

Following the closed session, Forrester told the newspaper no action was taken.

This past Sept. 11, Alison Howard of Traer shared a screenshot of a repost allegedly made by McFate on social media (the newspaper has been unable to independently verify McFate’s posting). The repost included a distorted image of Kirk alongside the following quote written in all caps, “I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other god-given rights.”

The quote was attributed to Kirk who was first reported to have made the statement back in April 2023 (as reported at the time by Media Matters for America). The original post McFate is alleged to have shared was made by the account U.S. Department of S***posting – Rise of the Resistance, which wrote above the image of Kirk, “Too Soon?”

McFate was hired by North Tama in June 2024 to teach K-12 music as well as junior high/high school vocal music after retiring the previous May from South Tama County Community School District.

As of press time (Monday, Oct. 6), McFate remained on paid administrative leave.