Many teachers, professors, school administrators and others working in schools have been fired, forced to resign or put on leave in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assasination on September 10 as a result of comments made about the incident. Many of these comments were made on personal social media accounts, prompting questions about freedom of speech in a highly polarized nation.
Nancy Zettler, a school board president in Algonquin, Illinois had her seat on the board stripped on Thursday, October 2, according to the Daily Herald. This came after she commented on Kirk’s death, calling it “karma” in the wake of the event on September 10. Zettler defended her comments and refused to apologize, believing that the posts made on her private social media account were taken out of context. At subsequent meetings to determine her future as board president, some district parents held disdain for her lack of empathy, while others defended her right to free speech.
Michael Mann, a well known climate scientist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania stepped down from his role on Monday, September 29 after receiving backlash for comments praising the shooting on social media. According to Fox News, he reposted content calling Kirk the “head of Trump’s Hitler Youth” along with poking fun at the tragedy with his own posts about the death. This activity prompted the response of Republican Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, who condemned his comments and urged the university to “take immediate, decisive action.”
As cases like these have continued, some teachers have begun to file lawsuits against the schools that have fired them. According to NBC News, an Iowa art teacher, a professor at the University of South Dakota and a teacher’s assistant at a South Carolina school are a few of the many educators to fight for their jobs back.
One of the highest profile of these lawsuits comes from Ball State University staff member Suzanne Swierc, who was fired on September 17. On September 11, she posted a remark about how the assasination was tragic but did not change her view of Kirk’s debates brewing conflict. The Facebook post went viral overnight, and she received immediate backlash from public figures like Elon Musk and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita. She also feared for her safety as strangers called, stalked and messaged her throughout the day. After losing her job, she filed suit against university president Geoffrey Mearns for violating her right to free speech.
A leading free speech advocacy organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), defends the first amendment right to free speech in all circumstances. According to Director of Public Advocacy Aaron Terr, an educator’s social media post “can’t be grounds for discipline unless it seriously disrupts the educational environment or prevents the employee from doing their job effectively.” Terr and FIRE maintain that the teachers who have filed suit will likely retain their jobs unless the schools can prove that they did interfere with students’ education in a tangible way. Terr also made note of the fact that censoring “speech that causes offense” might feel like a reasonable step to take, but “it sets a precedent that endangers everyone’s rights in the long run.”