Michelle Mickens sues Georgia school over Charlie Kirk comments post assassination after indefinite suspension. A victim of conservative ideological indoctrination and neutering of free speech?
A 2022 Georgia teacher of the year finalist has alleged her ‘free speech‘ rights were infringed when she was ‘indefinitely’ suspended over comments she made following the assassination of conservative activist, Charlie Kirk last month.
Michelle Mickens, 55, a long time English teacher at Oglethorpe County High School, found herself afoul of her school district employer after comments she posted on her private Facebook page mere hours after Kirk’s death.
Georgia school teacher: victim of ideological indoctrination?
Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University during his American Comeback Tour.
Mickens in her private Facebook post is allege to have called Charlie Kirk ‘a horrible person’ and a ‘fascist full of hate’. Comments which the educator claims are protected under the First Amendment from government retribution.
Whether her job on the other hand (despite the comments made outside the classroom and in a private group) is protected from her employer taking offense and who may have felt may have caused unnecessary disconcert/disruption as an educator remained unclear.
Posted Mickens: ‘I don’t condone violence of any kind, and I certainly don’t condone this, but he was a horrible person, a fascist full of hate for anyone who was different. While I’m sad that we live in a country where gun violence is an epidemic, the world is a bit safer without him. I didn’t respect him at all, and he’s part of the hatred and vitriolic language we hear so much now. I pray that without him, people can be kinder and more tolerant to one another.’
Kentucky school official ousted after ‘please shoot Republicans’ 2018 post
The next day the 20-year veteran educator was called into Oglethorpe County High School Principal Bill Sampson’s office and told by Sampson and Superintendent Beverly Levine the district had received a complaint about her online post — but that she was not in trouble, she said in a Georgia Federal Court lawsuit filed against the district this week.
The suit is being filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center along with Georgia Association of Educators on Mickens behalf according to FOX News.
‘The post neither disrupted her school nor created a controversy within her workplace,’ the complaint read in part. ‘The decision to remove Ms. Mickens from her classroom has been the only disruption to the school’s operations.’
At what cost resisting pressure to conform to ideological mandates?
Matters according to her filed suit escalated when a former high school classmate allegedly posted a screenshot of Mickens’ Facebook post on X along with the phone number for the school and Sampson’s direct email address.
He urged social media users to contact Sampson and let him know how they feel about ‘letting someone like her teaching [sic] children.’
In a subsequent meeting with Sampson and Levine, Mickens was urged to delete her comments and issue an apology, but she was sent home early after saying she wanted to first consult with her attorneys according to the filed lawsuit.
Mickens said she was later told not to come in the following week, only to later realize she had been removed from the school’s email network.
A union rep told her the district would seek to fire her if she didn’t resign, Mickens said in the lawsuit.
A replacement for Mickens has already replaced her, according to the court papers.
Mickens according to the complaint is being ‘targeted’ for her personal beliefs.
‘This case is about resisting the growing attempts to exert ideological control over public education,’ the Southern Poverty Law Center stated to FOX News in an email.
Mickens in her suit is suing to get her job back along with ‘compensation for lost wages and benefits, emotional distress, reputational harm, and other damages proximately caused by Defendants’ unlawful actions.’ The complaint also seeks attorneys’ fees and court costs.
