Ga. teacher gets nearly $300K in settlement over Charlie Kirk social media post
The Oglethorpe County School District paid nearly $300,000 to settle a lawsuit with a former Georgia teacher of the year finalist stemming from a social media post about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
High school English teacher Michelle Mickens was one of several educators across the country who were removed from the classroom for a post related to Kirk’s 2025 death. In a lawsuit filed in October, she accused the small school system outside Athens of violating her right to free speech.
After posting a quote from Kirk on her private social media account, school system leaders pressured Mickens to resign, according to the original complaint.
The district agreed to pay Mickens $270,420 for “alleged emotional distress” and $17,080 to her attorney to cover legal fees, according to a copy of the settlement agreement obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request.
Mickens agreed to resign from her position and not to seek employment with the district again. The district also agreed to provide Mickens with a positive employment reference.
“We are pleased to reach a mutually amicable settlement of this matter,” said Sam Boyd, a senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center and a member of Mickens’ legal team. “As courts across the country have recognized in other cases involving firings over comments about Charlie Kirk, and many other topics, ‘public school employees, including teachers, have a constitutionally protected right to free speech.’”
The school system denies all of Mickens’ allegations, the settlement stated.
Mickens and the school system signed the settlement agreement in June. The suit was dismissed Wednesday, according to court filings.
Plaintiffs in similar cases alleging First Amendment violations have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement agreements in recent months. A professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville was awarded $1.9 million; an employee at Indiana University will receive $225,000; and an Iowa teacher won more than $200,000, according to published reports.
About the post: ‘Full of hate’
On the day Kirk was shot and killed while onstage at an event at Utah Valley University, Mickens posted a quote from Kirk on her private social media account after work hours from her personal computer, according to the lawsuit.
“‘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.
Kirk was a cofounder of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit political organization that engaged young conservatives, and was known for inviting people to debate him on controversial political topics.
In response to some comments on the post, Mickens stated 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 former high school classmate of Mickens’ saw her post and publicly shared screenshots on his own social media, according to the complaint. 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.
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. An Emory University professor and child cancer researcher faced a similar fate. So did a Delta Air Lines flight attendant.