Ball State fired her over a private Facebook post on Charlie Kirk. Now it’s paying $225,000
A woman fired by an Indiana university over her Facebook post criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk after he was killed will receive $225,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused her former employer of violating her free-speech rights, the woman’s attorneys said Tuesday. The American Civil Liberties Union announced the settlement in a federal lawsuit it filed last year on behalf of Suzanne Swierc against Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns. Swierc worked as director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State’s campus in Muncie, Indiana, before she was fired last September. Ball State cited Swierc’s private Facebook post about Kirk as the sole reason for her termination, saying it caused “significant disruption” to the campus. Swierc’s firing violated her constitutional rights because she was “speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern,” said Stevie Pactor, an ACLU attorney in Indiana. “The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that,” Pactor said in a statement. Mearns defended firing Swierc in a statement sent Tuesday to campus leaders, which a Ball State spokesperson shared with The Associated Press. Mearns said backlash over Swierc’s post threatened to harm the school’s student enrollment and fundraising. He said the settlement’s “modest monetary payment” to Swierc was substantially less than fighting her lawsuit would have cost. Kirk, founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, was killed by a gunman Sept. 10 on the campus of a Utah university. Before his death, Kirk was credited with galvanizing the conservative youth vote to help President Donald Trump win a second term. Others fired for Kirk posts have won six-figure settlements Swierc was among a wave of workers who lost their jobs in both the public and private sector after posting social media comments and memes about Kirk’s assass