Recommendations of the Editorial team
Suzanne Swierc, the former director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, has received $225,000 in a settlement – in connection with her firing over social media comments about Charlie Kirk following the murder of the far-right activist.
“Suzanne was speaking out as a private citizen on a matter of public concern when Ball State fired her over a private social media post,” said Stevie Pactor, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Indiana. “The First Amendment does not permit governmental institutions to retaliate in such circumstances – and this settlement reflects that.”
Swierc and the ACLU sued Ball State University in September 2025 for violating their freedom of speech. The firing came after she was targeted by the right-wing account Libs of TikTok on X and by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita over posts she made on a private Facebook account about Kirk’s death.
The Facebook post verbatim
In the post, Swierc wrote: “I’ll say it clearly: Anyone who thinks Charlie Kirk is a wonderful person cannot be my friend.” She called his death a “tragedy,” expressed sympathy for his wife and children and noted that while the shooting was “a reflection of the violence, fear and hatred he sowed,” it “does not justify” his death. Ball State President Geoffrey Mearns then informed Swierc of her immediate dismissal, citing the Facebook post as the reason.
Swierc’s position at Ball State University was purely administrative – she was not on the teaching staff. In her role, she developed health and wellness programs for students at the university, which is located approximately 50 miles from Indianapolis. According to the ACLU of Indiana, the settlement reached in the lawsuit “provides that Ball State employees may serve as references for Swierc and that their supervisors, upon request, recognize their positive contributions to health promotion and advocacy work at the university.”
In response to the settlement, Mearns released a letter to his colleagues in which he maintained his decision to terminate Swierc’s employment. “As part of the settlement, our university made a modest monetary payment to Ms. Swierc. I approved this payment because it is well below the expected legal fees for defending the case,” Mearns wrote in the letter, which was published by the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “The settlement does not support Ms. Swierc’s claims, as her attorneys explained today.”
Other similar cases
Mearns insists that the public reaction to the Facebook post “has been extremely damaging to the reputation and reputation of our university and has significantly impacted our mission and our people.”
Earlier this year, Austin Peay State University reinstated a professor who was also fired over social media posts about Kirk’s death. He received $500,000 in his settlement, which was sparked by a 2023 article he shared titled “Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment.” And just last week, a biologist who was terminated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission after sharing memes about Kirk’s death was awarded a $485,000 settlement.
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