UPDATE: The educator has resigned. Read our latest story here.
A Rosemount special education teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave after posting a tweet Saturday that appeared to call for the killing of new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The teacher, listed as an instructor at the Intermediate School District 917's Alliance Education Center, has since deleted her Twitter account but her tweet was captured and shared by scores of users who said they reported it to the FBI and U.S. Secret Service.
A spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis said Monday that the bureau was aware of the tweet, which read: "So whose [sic] gonna take one for the team and kill Kavanaugh?"
The Star Tribune is not naming the teacher because she has not been charged with a crime. In a statement on the district's website Monday morning, ISD 917 Superintendent Mark Zuzek confirmed the district received a complaint about an employee over the weekend and placed the employee on paid administrative leave "pending the outcome of the investigation."
"Pursuant with the data practices act, we are limited to providing additional information regarding this matter," Zuzek's statement concluded.
Also Monday, the Dakota County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that it was aware of the alleged tweet but neither the office nor Rosemount police were "currently investigating any incidents we believe to have happened at the school."
Calls to a phone number listed for the teacher were not immediately returned. The tweet was published hours after Kavanaugh was sworn in after a bitter weekslong fight over his nomination, mired by allegations of sexual harassment and a contentious confirmation hearing.
It is unclear whether the teacher will be charged with a crime or what law enforcement agency is responsible for investigating the tweet. While Twitter users wrote that they reported the tweet to the FBI and Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals Service is responsible for protecting the federal judiciary. The U.S. Supreme Court also has a small federal police force in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota has prosecuted at least two people in recent years for making threats against federal district court judges in the state. Last month, jurors convicted former Hopkins mayoral candidate Robert Philip Ivers with threatening to kill a federal judge overseeing a civil suit he brought. Meanwhile, Khaalid Abdulkadir is serving a term of probation after tweeting death threats against a federal judge and agents in 2015.
