- January 8, 2026
-
-
Loading
Loading
The original email — sent Sept. 14, 2025, wasn’t even 300 words long.
But it changed William Loggans’ life forever.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Loggans, a social studies teacher at Horizon High School, put up a new poster in his classroom. It featured a portrait of Kirk, along with a quote: “Never underestimate the power of your voice and the impact you can have on the world when you speak up for what you believe in.”
For Loggans, the poster wasn’t political. Rather, the sentiment encapsulated perfectly his mission as a teacher: to prove to every student who enters his classroom that their minds, thoughts and opinions are valuable — and that they matter. It was to inspire courage to speak and not to let fear silence their words.
“I found the poster online, and I (thought) it’d be a great inspiration,” he said. “I put a lot of inspirational posters up. I teach honors comprehensive law, and I’m always talking about First Amendment rights and speaking up for yourself, and don’t go along with a crowd … critically think for yourself. And I thought this was perfect to fit in with that, so I got it, and I put it up.”
It didn’t take long before a student took issue with the poster. That same morning, the student walked into Loggans’ classroom and told him he needed to take it down. She told Loggans Kirk was a Nazi fascist and said he might as well have quoted Adolf Hitler.
Loggans refused to remove the poster; the student grabbed her backpack and left the classroom.
She then penned an email to then-principal Andrew Jackson.
“Charlie Kirk has made several offensive comments, including advocating for ethnic cleansing and making derogatory remarks about trans people,” the student wrote. “His statements have been hurtful and divisive, and I believe that commemorating him in a classroom setting is not appropriate and can cause arguments and separation among students.
“I brought this to my teacher’s attention, and he argued that the quote itself is not political,” she wrote. “However, I argue that the context of the quote and the person who said it cannot be ignored. Even if the quote is neutral, the fact that it comes from a figure with a history of hate speech and divisive rhetoric makes it problematic. I would like to request that the poster be removed from the classroom and that the school takes steps to ensure that all students feel safe and respected while in school.”
At the end of that school day, Loggans, a Christian, said a prayer: Lord, give me wisdom. Help me handle this with grace.
Since that fateful September day, Loggans has become a national figure — the public face for freedom of thought in the American public classroom. He has been featured on numerous programs, including Dana Loesch’s show, Not the Bee, Fox News Digital, Fox News Outnumbered, The Faulkner Focus and Newsmax.
He’s already published a book “Quiet Courage in the Classroom: One Teacher’s Stand for Freedom and the Future of America’s Youth.”
And in 2026, he will be launching his nonprofit, the Freedom to Think Project, which will support educators, parents and students who want to advocate for open dialogue and honesty in their school communities. The organization’s first event will be held in early 2026.
‘I’M NOT GONNA LET THIS GO’
Loggans awoke the morning after the altercation with the student to find an email in his inbox. Jackson informed Loggans the student filed a complaint and he had forwarded it to district officials at Orange County Public Schools.
Ultimately, the concern landed on OCPS General Counsel John Palmerini’s desk.
Palmerini advised: “While I agree that the message on the poster is non-political, the usage of Charlie Kirk on the poster definitely has a political connotation to it. Mr. Kirk was a well-known conservative political activist prior to his assassination. Many students and their parents have objections to his political positions, and therefore will have objections to posters in the classroom. Parents and students may attribute the message on the poster to the School District and School Board, which ... is not permissible under law.
“In this case, removal of the poster with Mr. Kirk’s image from a classroom is appropriate because display of the poster implies the School District or School Board’s endorsement of Mr. Kirk,” he wrote. “I would also recommend removal if the poster contained the same words but had an image of Barack Obama on it as well. Our school classrooms are meant to be apolitical places of learning for our students.”
Palmerini cited two other similar cases in which OCPS forced the removal of items from a classroom. One included a teacher displaying the Gadsden flag, and the other regarding a school displaying a Black Lives Matter banner.
“We prohibited the display of both banners, one conservative and one liberal, because we did not want the public to believe that either flag represented the position of the School District and the School Board as a whole,” he wrote.
Palmerini’s directive came back to Loggans through Jackson. No one from the district ever spoke to Loggans directly or asked to see the poster.
Nevertheless, Loggans complied. But not without a warning.
“He (Jackson) came and told me what they said, and I took it down, and I said, ‘You know, I’m not gonna let this go, right?’ And he goes, ‘I wouldn’t think you would.’”
BECOMING MR. LOGGANS
Before Loggans was a teacher, he served as a law enforcement officer and later an investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families. He saw the worst of the worst. And although Loggans’ calling always has been to help children, a job like that eventually takes its toll on a man.
“I was working in the human-trafficking unit, and I saw so much; it was getting to me bad,” Loggans said.
Then one day, he was talking to his youngest daughter, who graduated with an engineering degree but later became a fifth-grade teacher.
“It got me to thinking — maybe that’s what I should do,” Loggans said. “Maybe this is a way to … hopefully get to kids before they get into that situation that I saw as a DCF investigator.
“And so that was what my whole ambition was to get into teaching — to try to reach students, help them learn to think for themselves and not go along with the crowd and surrender to things that can get them killed — like drugs and running away from home and stuff like that,” he said.
Loggans began his teaching career at Real Life Christian Academy in Lake County before moving to OCPS when Horizon High opened in 2021. He particularly enjoys teaching law and leading discussions about freedom of speech. And although he knows he can’t outwardly teach his faith in a public school setting, he can be an example of it.
“Even though you can’t just come right out to teach about Jesus and about Christianity and what God can do for you, you can model it,” Loggans said. “And you can frame it in such a way that it’s not directly teaching, but it’s showing them that there’s something to offer out there for them to live better lives.”
And more than anything, Loggans wants his students to know they are loved, valued and capable. His greatest responsibility as an educator, he said, isn’t to teach his students about government or history but rather to help them understand their worth.
It’s a motive that stems from tragedy, grief and the darkest place any parent can imagine.
LOVE AND LOSS
In 2021, Loggans’ oldest daughter, Dyan, died of a fentanyl overdose. She was just 36 years old and a new mother.
Dyan’s death tore a hole in Loggans’ heart, and without his strong faith, he might have succumbed to it.
Instead, that grief renewed the responsibility he felt to his students. His courage grew, as did his commitment to his students. He poured even more into them, telling them they have purpose, meaning and worth.
“Before Dyan’s death, teaching was my job and my passion,” Loggans wrote in his book. “After Dyan’s death, teaching became my mission.
“I became more intentional, more patient, more attuned to their needs,” he wrote. “I noticed things I never noticed before — the student whose smile never reached her eyes, the kid who laughed loudly to hide his pain, the one who sat in the back hoping no one saw the sadness he carried.
“And every time I sensed something like that, it stirred something deep inside me — something protective, something fatherly, something born out of love and loss,” Loggans wrote. “More than once, I found myself stepping aside with a student and saying, ‘Hey, I’m here if you ever need someone to talk to.’ Or, ‘You matter. Don’t forget that.’”
And so, when a lawyer sitting in an office in downtown Orlando forced Loggans to take down the poster, it didn’t scare him. He already had been through valleys far darker than this.
Furthermore, it didn’t mark the end of the story — but rather the beginning.
QUIET COURAGE
After the district’s initial directive, Loggans consulted with attorney and Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini, and then filed a grievance with OCPS.
At that time, Sabatini called the district’s demand to remove the poster unconstitutional.
“This is a classic case of First Amendment viewpoint discrimination, and they’re going to lose in court if it’s challenged,” he said. “We don’t want to challenge it, but we’ll do it if we have to. We’re hoping they do the right thing and just allow him to just display a simple poster, which, of course, nobody had an issue with it.”
Days later, OCPS acquiesced, and by late October, the poster was back on Loggans’ classroom wall.
But by that time, Loggans’ story had gained attention. He never wanted it, but Loggans — the mild-mannered, social studies teacher at Horizon High — had become the face for free thought in America’s public schools. Several national podcasters and news hosts asked for interviews, and Loggans also culled his journal together into a book: “Quiet Courage in the Classroom: One Teacher’s Stand for Freedom and the Future of America’s Youth.”
Loggans originally self-published the book through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service. It hit the retailer giant’s website on Thanksgiving Day — Nov. 27, 2025. By Saturday, the book had climbed to No. 40 on Amazon’s top 100 educational biographies — a feat unheard of for a self-published title.
But later that day, Amazon sent Loggans an email telling him it had removed the ebook version.
Why?
Disappointing customer experience, an Amazon official replied.
The next day, Amazon representatives told him the paperback also had been taken down. This time, the chosen reason was “offensive content.”
In December, Loggans was able to find a new distributor in Barnes and Noble. He also is selling it on his own website.
A TARGETED MAN
Even with the poster controversy resolved, Loggans still faced scrutiny.
The same student who filed the complaint about the poster filed another one through the FortifyFL app. This complaint stems from Loggans’ teaching of a state-mandated unit on the evils of communism.
“I had a part in it about socialism and how socialism turns into communism,” Loggans said. “And then I had a section on why (socialism appeals) to young people so much. On the slide, I had pictures of (New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Bernie Sanders, (Vladimir) Lenin and a couple other people. They were promoting socialism. And when I had that slide (up) and was talking about it, (the) student got up and walked out of the classroom.”
Since the poster investigation, Jackson left Horizon to take the principal position at West Orange High School. New Horizon High Principal Brian Sanchez Corona informed Loggans he would be interviewing about six of his students as part of an investigation into this latest complaint. On Dec. 23, OCPS Office of Professional Standards Senior Manager Tamika Redfin sent Loggans an email confirming that second investigation was completed and closed.
“I’ve had teachers tell me, ‘You know, you got a target on your back now,’” Loggans said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I guess I do.’”
FREEDOM TO THINK PROJECT
Despite the scrutiny, Loggans remains committed to his students — and the mission inspired by Dyan’s memory. He wants to remain teaching at Horizon High and is prepared to fight should the district decide otherwise.
Furthermore, he will dedicate much of his 2026 to strengthening educators, students and parents nationally through his nonprofit, the Freedom to Think Project.
Loggans said he was inspired to launch the organization because of all the feedback he received from the poster controversy. Throughout that battle, he received hundreds of messages of encouragement from teachers and families from all over the nation. One lady from Tennessee event sent him a hand-embroidered piece displaying 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
That piece now hangs in his home office.
“I got all of these messages from across the nation from teachers wishing they had the kind of bravery I had,” Loggans said. “I’m not brave. I’m just standing up for what’s right.”
Through the Freedom to Think Project, Loggans, along with two other Orange County teachers, plans host workshops that will help teachers, students and parents defend and encourage free thinking in their school communities.
He already has been in touch with two students from Windermere Preparatory School who attempted to start a Turning Point USA chapter on their campus but were denied.
Loggans said the organization plans to have its first event in January. Several public figures, including Orange County School Board District 3 Member Alicia Farrant and Orange County GOP Chair and Florida House District 25 candidate Erin Huntley, are planning to speak. Loggans hopes to have video messages from Loesch and Moms for Liberty activitist Scarlett Johnson, as well.
Eventually, Loggans hopes the nonprofit can fund scholarships and resources for teachers.
“We certainly want to have something going on every month where we’re giving out pamphlets, we’re talking to people having workshops, and discussing … what problems teachers are running into and (seeing) how we can find attorneys that will be able to help with some advice,” he said. “We’re going to really push this, because my goal is to get the public school system back to where … our kids can have the freedom to think and not be indoctrinated.”
