A Georgia Teacher of the Year finalist who was suspended from her job after describing assassinated conservative pundit Charlie Kirk as “a horrible person” and a “fascist full of hate” says her remarks were protected by the First Amendment — and is suing to get back in the classroom.
Veteran high school English teacher Michelle Mickens posted on her private Facebook page about Kirk’s death, hours after he was brutally killed while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University.
“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,” Mickens, 55, wrote.
The next day the 20-year 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.
That all changed days later when a former high school classmate allegedly posted a screenshot of her Facebook post on X along with the phone number for the school and Sampson’s direct email address, she said in court papers.
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 consult with her attorneys she said in the lawsuit.
Mickens said she was later told not to come in the following week, and then realized she no longer had access to the school’s email system.
A union rep told her the district would seek to fire her if she didn’t resign, Mickens said in the lawsuit.
Levine told a subsequent Board of Education meeting the district had already hired a replacement for Mickens, according to the court papers.
She wants her job back along with unspecified damages.
Mickens’ attorneys, Sampson and Levine did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
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