Educators are suing after being fired for comments about Charlie Kirk. And some are winning.

Educators and school officials fired for making remarks about Charlie Kirk after his death are fighting back with lawsuits.

Educators and school officials across the nation who were fired for comments about Charlie Kirk's death are firing back with lawsuits and these folks aren't fooling around. The lawsuits claim that their First Amendment rights were violated and they may have a point. Not only are some winning but they also reveal the hypocrisy of the right as it pertains to free speech. 

I'm going to highlight some cases:

Judge rules in favor of teacher facing dismissal for Charlie Kirk-related posts - The case of Melisa Crook, a teacher in Iowa who was fired, highlights two things - 1. How fast the right-wing ecosystem travels when it comes to setting the narrative. 2.The importance of "keeping receipts." 

Crook made the supposedly offensive comment, which really wasn't an ugly one, on her own time at home on her personal Facebook account. In her lawsuit, Crook showed that other school officials (the ones behind her dismissal) weren't as careful to keep their personal opinions away from school:

 As part of her lawsuit, Crook included a 43-page document displaying social media posts allegedly written by (Superintendent Deron) Stender over the past several years. The lawsuit also claims Stender and Gee, the school board president, have each “made at least one Facebook post or comment agreeing with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asserting that in Florida, individuals have the right to hit other people with their cars” — a reference to DeSantis saying people, if they feel threatened, could drive over protesters. 

 The exhibit suggests Stender has made and shared political posts on a Twitter account he also used for school purposes, including content supporting Trump and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst; content condemning the “liberal media”; comments about “riots in liberal cities”; a post about supporters of former President Joe Biden being “snowflakes”; and one comment stating, “if you don’t like America, leave with Bruce Springsteen and the other elites.” 

 Two separate posts attributed to Stender also called on Iowans to “vote for Ernst” and to “vote Ernst on November 3.” Crook’s lawsuit also references social media posts by (Don)Gee, the school board president, that include an immigration-related comment condemning what Gee called “bull — left-wing judges.” 

 And my favorite part about this is Libs of TikTok, which also played a part in Crook's dismissal, weeping and whining online. Any time this group is upset over something is a good thing.

What @libsoftiktok FAILED to mention was not only did Melisa Crook make the comment about Charlie Kirk on her own time, but in her lawsuit against the firing, she pointed out how the superintendent made pro-GOP comments over the years using a Twitter address designated for school… pic.twitter.com/4qchOJ4nQi

— Holy Bullies (@holybullies) October 25, 2025

Crook is not the only educator filing a lawsuit and winning. Last month, a federal judge reinstated a University of South Dakota tenured professor who was fired for calling Kirk a "Nazi."

And there are other lawsuits.

 In Georgia a teacher, Michelle Mickens, is suing her school district. Her lawsuit, like Crook's, accuses her school district of duplicity.

Georgia school district was sued Monday after it fired a veteran high school teacher because of her social media posts critical of recently assassinated politically conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Michelle Mickens, a former finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year, posted a quote from Kirk on her personal, private Facebook account and made comments under the post on the danger of gun violence. 

The federal lawsuit, filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Georgia Association of Educators, claims the Oglethorpe County School System asked Mickens to remove her post, retract or apologize for the post, and/or stop using social media completely. However, the lawsuit claims, the district has no clear standards for employee social media use. Meanwhile, the lawsuit said the district allowed speech in school supporting Kirk, such as teachers participating in Kirk’s birthday celebrations on school campus by wearing t-shirts bearing texts and images in his memory.

 The district’s decision to place Mickens on indefinite paid suspension, pending termination of her employment, as a result of her private social media post critical of Kirk violates her First Amendment right to free speech and the 14th Amendment, which ensures due process, according to the complaint.

Other lawsuits include:

Former landscape supervisor sues Auburn University, says he was fired over Charlie Kirk post

Employee sues Ole Miss chancellor after being fired over Charlie Kirk post 

S.C. educator sues over her firing after Charlie Kirk post 

ACLU sues Ball State president over employee's Charlie Kirk post firing 

According to an October 1 article in The Huffington Post, free speech groups have been mobilizing to defend these lawsuits in court. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is one of these groups: 

 FIRE . . . sent letters to universities that had begun disciplinary procedures against teachers and lecturers for their speech about Kirk. One letter to the president of California State University-Fresno calls on the university to drop disciplinary proceedings into Barri Brennan, a lecturer, for telling a student after Kirk was shot, but before his death was announced, “You want to know what I think? It’s too bad he’s not dead.” 

 Another letter from FIRE to Florida Atlantic University warned the school to drop a disciplinary investigation into professor Karen Leader for posting online about Kirk’s political views without even mentioning his death.

Other free speech groups who are helping to defend these lawsuits are the American Civil Liberties Union in the Ball State University case and a Clemson case and South Poverty Law Center in the Michelle Mickens case in Georgia.

Charlie Kirk did not deserve to be murdered, but he was not a good person. He was a bigoted, racist sleazebag, so naturally his death garnered so many reactions. Some of the reactions were ones I didn't agree with, but I also didn't like the holier-than-thou attitude from the "f@ck your feelings" crowd as they engaged in witch hunts against those they felt didn't give Kirk enough deference.

But that's how they are. You can't blame trash for being trash. What bothers me is how quickly certain university officials who should have known better caved in to the shrieking hypocritical harpies of the right as they attempted to canonize Kirk at the expense of truth.

To these university officials, I have one thing to say - you deserve the price you may have to pay for refusing to defend your people.