The ACLU of Indiana and a former Ball State University employee settled a lawsuit over a post about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Ball State agreed to pay former employee Suzanne Swierc $225,000 after it fired her over a private Facebook post.
In September, Swierc wrote on Facebook that Kirk’s death was a tragedy. But she also said his death was a “reflection of the violence, fear and hatred he sowed.” The post soon circulated online, touching off criticism of Swierc and the university, which prompted her termination.
Swierc and the ACLU sued Ball State President Geoffrey Mearns, claiming her First Amendment rights were violated when she was fired.
After the settlement terms were announced Tuesday, Swierc said the last eight months have “been some of the most difficult of my life.”
“My voice and my rights matter, but those of all public employees matter as well,” Swierc said. “I hope that the nature of my case signals to state employees and employers alike that our First Amendment rights must be protected. These rights are worth fighting for.”
Said ACLU attorney Josh Bleisch:
“We hope that this sends a message to not just all public employees, but everybody out there, that people who work for the government still have a First Amendment right to speak. They still can participate as citizens. They can still talk about important public issues.”
Though Swierc’s Facebook post was private, it was screenshotted and widely shared publicly, including on Attorney General Todd Rokita’s Eyes on Education platform. Swierc said Tuesday she endured hateful messages, though they have mostly stopped.
She said she has a “lot of mixed and complicated feelings” about the settlement agreement.
“It felt a little bit like closing the lid to a coffin — not in that I'm saying goodbye to a loved one that I'm going to miss by any means — but in that a chapter of my life is ending,” Swierc said. “It's a chapter in which I had no control over the damage and wreckage that it caused.”
Bleisch said he hopes public universities and colleges realize there is a cost to violating the First Amendment rights of their students, employeesand faculty.
“We want our universities to be these places for ideas to mix, and for debate to happen,” Bleisch said.
Why did Ball State fire Swierc?
In a message to the Ball State leaders Tuesday morning, Mearns shared more about why he fired Swierc.
Mearns said he believed he had the legal authority and responsibility to protect Ball State’s mission and community from harassment.
Mearns said the reaction to Swierc’s post on social media was “immediate, extensive, and unrelenting."
"Moreover, the reaction was extraordinarily damaging to our University’s reputation and image, and it was exceptionally disruptive to our mission and our people,” Mearns said.
Mearns said the university received “hundreds of critical communications” and “incessant phone calls,” plus threats to withhold donations. He said the wave of messages — some of which threatened violence — disrupted work and strained employees.
At the same time, Mearns said he reviewed laws and legal precedent for public institutions.
“After carefully considering all of the relevant facts and the applicable law, I concluded that I had the legal authority to terminate Ms. Swierc’s employment,” Mearns said. “Indeed, when I considered the extensive and ongoing disruption to our mission and the sustained, adverse impact on the wellbeing of our employees, I decided that I had the professional obligation to terminate her employment in order to stop that disruption and that harm.”
Mearns said the settlement payment of $225,000 would be substantially less than the expected legal fees to defend the case.
