Copyright The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A former Georgia teacher of the year finalist said in a new lawsuit that her employer violated her First Amendment rights after her Facebook post about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Michelle Mickens, a high school English teacher in Oglethorpe County outside of Athens, posted a quote from Kirk on her private Facebook page on the day he was shot and killed while onstage at an event at a Utah university. Mickens’ post was circulated online, prompting people outside of the school system to call her employer, the complaint says. She has been on “indefinite paid suspension pending termination” for more than a month, according to her attorneys. “This case is about resisting the growing attempts to exert ideological control over public education,” said Michael Tafelski, interim deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center and one of Mickens’ attorneys. “Ms. Mickens is being targeted not because she violated any policy or harmed students, but because her personal views — expressed outside of the classroom — don’t align with those in power. This unconstitutional censorship of protected speech endangers a healthy democracy.” Oglethorpe County School System Superintendent Beverley Levine said in an emailed statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the district is confident it will prevail in defending itself. “While many of the facts stated in the suit and the press statements on plaintiff’s behalf are inaccurate or incomplete,” Levine wrote, “having been sued in federal court, the District prefers to litigate the issues in that forum and not in the press or in the public.” She did not respond to a question about what inaccuracies she was referring to. “‘I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.- Charlie Kirk,’” the post read. It did not include any commentary from Mickens. In response to some comments on the post, Mickens stated that she doesn’t condone his killing but that Kirk was a “fascist full of hate.” “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,” the comment read in part. “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.” A high school classmate of Mickens’ saw her post and publicly shared screenshots on his own social media. It was also shared by an account on X with more than 600,000 followers, along with the name of her employer and contact information for her principal. Mickens made the post on Sept. 10 and was sent home from work early on Sept. 13. On Sept. 29, she was told through her union representative that the district did not want her to return to teaching and that she would be terminated if she didn’t resign. The Oglethorpe County School System has no policy about teachers’ off-campus social media activity, according to the lawsuit. Teachers and others across the country lost their jobs or were disciplined for making similar posts on social media in the wake of Kirk’s death. At least two teachers in Cobb County lost their jobs, and an unidentified number were placed on leave after making posts that allegedly “celebrated or condoned” Kirk’s death. Cobb County Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said last week that “gratuitous public statements and posts celebrating murders on school grounds by a school shooter are not aligned” with expectations for teachers. An Emory University professor and child cancer researcher faced a similar fate. So did a Delta Air Lines flight attendant. Mickens was a Georgia teacher of the year finalist and runner-up in 2022 and has been a teacher for 24 years. An online petition supporting Mickens collected more than 1,100 signatures.
