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A South Florida teacher has been placed on “administrative reassignment” after coming under fire for inflammatory comments made during a rant about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a Broward County Public School District spokesman has confirmed to New Times.
Steven Babice, a social studies teacher at Everglades High School in Miramar, apparently flew off the handle during a discussion about Kirk on September 11, the day after the conservative influencer was killed, a 17-year-old student who recorded part of the rant told New Times earlier this week. On the recording, the man the student identified as Babice can be heard telling a class of mostly Black teens, “I grew up white. Everyone I know was taught not to be racist; we’re all equal. That’s what we were taught. Then I become an adult, and guess what I find out? Black people are taught to hate white people. So who’s the racist?”
“Why do Black people hate white people?” the teacher continues. “Because cops are killing Blacks, is that what’s going on? Are more whites getting shot by cops than Blacks? Somebody say yes because that’s a fact. How come there are parades, fires, murders, and burning cities down all because George Floyd, a career criminal, died? But when a white girl on a train gets stabbed in the neck — just whispers. If that was a white guy killing a Black girl, the world would be upside down, correct? So who’s the racist?”
The student’s mother, who asked to remain anonymous for fear her daughter would face retaliation, told New Times she was worried about sending her 17-year-old back to the class and apprehensive about what else the teacher may have been telling impressionable teenagers.
She filed a complaint with the school and school district officials, who told New Times they were investigating the matter.
“Broward County Public Schools is committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and ethical conduct,” spokeswoman Keyla Concepción wrote in a statement she provided to New Times. “We take these matters seriously and will thoroughly investigate all allegations to ensure our learning environments remain safe, respectful, and inclusive for every student and family.”
The student who spoke to New Times says the incident was sparked after Babice began arguing with one of her classmates about whether Charlie Kirk had espoused racist ideas. She says she’s not sure who initiated the exchange, but that Babice became irate and began slamming his fists on his desk and kicking a closet door.
On the recording, he can be heard telling students that he doesn’t want to hear anyone call someone racist without backing it up.
Kirk led Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that traveled nationwide to high schools and universities to advocate for conservative policies. Turning Point’s anti-woke messaging and grassroots mobilization of Gen Z and Millennials played an influential role in President Donald Trump’s second run for office. He is perhaps most famous for viral videos of him verbally sparring with college students over gun rights, abortion, immigration, and other hot-button issues. His death inspired a social media firestorm, where many who made light of the situation lost their jobs.
Since his death, all kinds of Kirk quotes have resurfaced, including those where he suggested Black airline pilots are simply diversity hires and don’t deserve their positions, and that prominent Black women like Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson lack the brain-processing power to be taken seriously, according to reporting from the Guardian. “If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder, is she there because of her excellence or is she there because of affirmative action?” Kirk infamously asked on his podcast last year.
The student who spoke with New Times says that in comments that weren’t caught on tape, Babice stated that Black people should stop complaining because the U.S. has had a Black president and Everglades High School has a Black principal. She says Babice also claimed that Kirk had done more for Black people than people like Barack Obama.
She says Babice booted the defiant student from the class, then explained to the class that “that ignorant Black kid” doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He then dismissed the entire class, instructing them to go to the classroom next door. The next day, she says, Babice made the class watch a Kirk memorial video and cursed at students who weren’t paying attention.
“Kids are scared and don’t want to go back to class,” the student’s mother tells New Times. “I don’t know why that man is still teaching.”
The woman says she was appalled to find Babice was able to keep his job after a 2019 incident, also reported by New Times. At that time he made derogatory comments about women in a comment on a Facebook post from a former student who opined about laws restricting abortion rights.
“When an irresponsible whore learns that a baby’s life has as much value as hers then maybe she’d use her mouth instead of her polluted vagina. Ignorant,” Babice wrote.
According to previous New Times reporting, Babice worked at Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines before teaching at Everglades High. In a memo dated March 24, 1997, then-Flanagan High principal Sara B. Rogers warned Babice to stop making inappropriate comments in class. The memo noted that students had made allegations, but provided no further details. “This correspondence is to serve as a warning to you to refrain from engaging students in conversation that may be perceived as…having sexually suggestive connotation,” Rogers wrote. “This behavior is…unacceptable.”
Babice moved to Everglades High in 2004. Three years later, according to his personnel file, Crime Stoppers received an anonymous tip claiming Babice had been taking drugs and having sex with a student who’d graduated two years earlier. Broward Schools investigator Gary Rowe confronted Babice, who denied the claim. “At this time, there is no further information,” Rowe wrote in a memo. Then-principal Paul Fetscher said he would monitor Babice, and the case was closed. No evidence in the file pointed to any additional investigation.
Current Everglades High principal Marie Duperval did not return New Times‘ request for comment.
Editor’s note 9/26/25: This story has been updated, primarily to note that Broward school district officials have placed Steven Babice on administrative leave while the district investigates the recent alleged classroom incident.
