Why is there not a rating on this post? There’s not enough verified evidence for us to definitively confirm or debunk this rumor. Contact us if you have credible information to share. We’ll update this post as necessary.
On Oct. 18, 2025, during a “No Kings” protest in Chicago against U.S. President Donald Trump, a bystander recorded a video of a woman making a finger gun, pointing it at her neck, and “firing” it while saying “bang.” The video was shared widely on social media, where users interpreted the gesture as a reference to the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was shot in the neck in September 2025 during an event at Utah Valley University.
In the weeks following the assassination, a coalition of conservatives made it their mission to identify and shame people documented disparaging Kirk, including by reporting them to their employers. As with many other cases, social media users took it upon themselves to investigate who the woman in the video was.
Posts quickly surfaced claiming to identify the woman as Lucy Martinez, an elementary school teacher at Chicago’s Nathan Hale Elementary School. Users began messaging and calling the school, which quickly deactivated its website and X account.
According to some social media posts, the school’s principal, Dawn Iles-Gomez, sent an email to parents about the event. Other posts claimed Martinez was fired for her actions. Snopes readers wrote in looking for more information.Â
Snopes had difficulty verifying details about the incident, including whether the woman depicted in the “No Kings” footage truly was Martinez. All the information available online came from low–reliability sources, including social media and tabloid-esque websites. Without verifiable information, we are unable to rate any claim about the incident.
With that said, we found no evidence the woman in the video, ostensibly Martinez, had lost her job as of this writing. We reached out to Chicago Public Schools, Hale Elementary and Martinez for comment on the story but had not heard back at time of publication. Here’s what we know:
Investigating who was in the video
The video was originally posted as an Instagram story, which is visible for only 24 hours after posting. As such, Snopes could not view the video as it originally appeared. Based on the footage we watched, there was no evidence indicating the video had been edited or deepfaked.Â
However, we could not definitively prove the woman in the video was Martinez. A headshot of Martinez shared in some posts made it clear that she shared some features with the woman in the video.Â
But simply looking like someone is not definitive proof. In 2013, a missing undergraduate student at Brown University named Sunil Tripathi was accused by many social media users of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing. In reality, Tripathi had died by suicide about a month before the bombing.
The closest thing to confirmation came from a statement provided by Chicago Public Schools to the city’s Fox affiliate, WFLD: “The district is aware an employee was filmed at a protest in Chicago and is the subject of social media posts.”
No evidence Martinez was disciplined
Some posts claimed Chicago Public Schools had fired Martinez for her actions but did not provide evidence of this. In some cases, those posts cited a report from the Indian outlet Times Now News titled “Who Is Lucy Martinez? Chicago School Teacher Fired Over Comments On Charlie Kirk’s Death.”
The body of that article did not provide any evidence Martinez had been fired. It cited a supposed statement on the event as coming from the “university’s president,” despite the fact that Martinez taught at an elementary school. An email supposedly sent to parents at Hale Elementary (discussed below) did not use any of the language quoted by Times Now News.Â
TV news station confirmed email sent to parents
Some posts spreading the rumor contained an email supposedly sent to parents by the Iles-Gomez, the school’s principal. WFLD also quoted from this email in its report on the events and said the school district had provided it.Â
A parent from Nathan Hale Elementary School in Chicago, where Lucy Martinez remains employed, just forwarded this email to us from the school Principal Iles-Gomez. This parent is LIVID that the school is making Martinez out to be a victim without even acknowledging her vile… pic.twitter.com/S0q6YXt14R
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) October 22, 2025
 The email made no claim that Martinez had been fired or disciplined for her supposed actions. It noted that many social media threats had been made against a staff member and that Chicago police would provide “extra support” to the school until it completed its investigation.Â
The letter also mentioned that Hale Elementary had temporarily deactivated its website and X account:
I apologize if anyone had trouble getting through to our main office by phone today. Many calls were coming in from beyond our school community, but we hope that these will subside soon. In addition, our school’s website and X account remain paused for now due to the use of inappropriate language by individuals not connected to Hale. These will be restored as soon as we feel that it is in the best interest of our school community.
Sources
Acton-Taylor, Lauren. “Chicago Teacher Accused of Mocking Charlie Kirk’s Death.” Mail Online, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15207753/chicago-teacher-mocking-charlie-kirk-assassination-school.html.
Bal, Aaratrika. “Nathan Hale Elementary School Principal’s Alleged Email Causes Outrage after It Mentions Lucy Martinez Being Threatened over Her Charlie Kirk Remarks.” Primetimer.Com, 22 Oct. 2025, https://www.primetimer.com/news/nathan-hale-elementary-school-principals-alleged-email-causes-outrage-after-it-mentions-lucy-martinez-being-threatened-over-her-charlie-kirk-remarks.
Blair, Anthony. Chicago Principal Claims Teacher Who Made Sick Charlie Kirk Gesture Is the Victim — but Makes No Mention of Her Behavior. 22 Oct. 2025, https://nypost.com/2025/10/22/us-news/chicago-principal-claims-teacher-who-made-sick-charlie-kirk-gesture-is-the-victim-but-makes-no-mention-of-her-behavior/.
Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas, and Bernard Mokam. “A Broad Wave of Firings Followed Charlie Kirk’s Assassination.” The New York Times, 26 Sep. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/us/kirk-critics-fired-free-speech.html.
Charlie Kirk Death: Report Those Who Celebrate the Shooting to Employers, Vance Says. 16 Sep. 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0r5y33pj5o.
“Chicago Teacher Reportedly Fired After Mocking Charlie Kirk’s Assassination… Nathan Hale Elementary Pulls Website Overnight.” WorldstarHipHop, https://worldstar.com/videos/wshh162lTVe1mv1hyDB2/chicago-teacher-reportedly-fired-after-mocking-charlie-kirks-assassination-nathan-hale-elementary-pulls-website-overnight. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
Kaushik, Manu. “Chicago Teacher Caught on Video Mocking Charlie Kirk’s Assassination with Gun Gesture at No Kings Protest.” The Economic Times, 21 Oct. 2025. The Economic Times – The Times of India, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/chicago-teacher-caught-on-video-mocking-charlie-kirks-assassination-with-gun-gesture-at-no-kings-protest/articleshow/124714298.cms?from=mdr.
Romine, Lex Harvey, Karina Tsui, Dakin Andone, Lauren Mascarenhas, Holly Yan, Maureen Chowdhury, Elise Hammond, Aditi Sangal, Tori B. Powell, Dalia Faheid, Taylor. “Live Updates: Charlie Kirk Shot Dead on Utah Campus; FBI Releases Images of Person of Interest.” CNN, 11 Sep. 2025, https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/charlie-kirk-shot-utah-death-09-11-25.
“Social Media Erupts over Chicago Teacher Mocking Charlie Kirk’s Death in ‘No Kings’ Viral Video.” Text.Article. FOX News, 21 Oct. 2025, https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/social-media-erupts-over-chicago-teacher-mocking-charlie-kirks-death-no-kings-viral-video.
Staff, N. P. R. “How Social Media Smeared A Missing Student As A Terrorism Suspect.” NPR, 18 Apr. 2016. Code Switch. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/04/18/474671097/how-social-media-smeared-a-missing-student-as-a-terrorism-suspect.
TheBronxDaily. Lucy Martinez, A Chicago Elementary School Teacher, Sparks Outrage Mocking Charlie Kirk’s Death | The Bronx Daily | Bronx.Com. 19 Oct. 2025, https://bronx.com/lucy-martinez-a-chicago-elementary-school-teacher-sparks-outrage-mocking-charlie-kirks-death/.
“Who Is Lucy Martinez and Did the Chicago School Teacher Mock Charlie Kirk’s Murder at No Kings Protest? What We Know.” Hindustan Times, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/who-is-lucy-martinez-and-did-the-chicago-school-teacher-mock-charlie-kirks-murder-at-no-kings-protest-what-we-know-101760925163140.html.
“Who Is Lucy Martinez? Chicago School Teacher Fired Over Comments On Charlie Kirk’s Death.” Times Now, 20 Oct. 2025, https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/who-is-lucy-martinez-mtsu-assistant-dean-fired-over-comments-on-charlie-kirks-death-article-153025634.
