A Georgia school district has agreed to pay nearly $300,000 to resolve a lawsuit filed by an English teacher who said she was pushed out of her job because of social media remarks she made after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Oglethorpe County School District will pay former teacher Michelle Mickens $270,420 for alleged emotional distress, along with $17,000 for legal fees, according to a settlement agreement obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request.
The agreement brings an end to a legal dispute that began after Mickens, a former finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year, accused the district of violating her First Amendment rights. She alleged administrators pressured her to resign over posts shared on her private Facebook account following Kirk’s death in 2025.
As part of the settlement, Mickens will step down from her role, agree not to apply for future employment with the district and receive a favorable job reference.
The school system, however, denied all of Mickens’ claims in the agreement and did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The lawsuit attracted national attention as Mickens joined a number of educators around the country who faced discipline or public backlash for social media comments connected to Kirk’s death.
Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed in September 2025 while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.
The shooting was widely condemned by leaders across the political spectrum, but it also fueled heated debate online, with some public employees coming under scrutiny for statements they posted in the aftermath.
Former Georgia high school English teacher Michelle Mickens reached a settlement with the Oglethorpe County School District over her lawsuit stemming from social media posts about Charlie Kirk’s death
Mickens, a Teacher of the Year finalist, claimed in her lawsuit that the school’s ‘retaliatory’ action against her had violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment
In her Facebook comments Mickens said while she doesn’t ‘condone violence of any kind,’ Kirk, who was assassinated in September, was ‘a horrible person’ who was ‘full of hate’
According to Mickens’ lawsuit, she posted one of Kirk’s own quotes on gun rights to her private Facebook page after work hours using her personal computer.
The quote read: ‘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.’
The lawsuit said the original post contained no commentary from Mickens.
However, as friends responded in the comments, Mickens joined the discussion, writing that while she did not support political violence, she strongly disagreed with Kirk’s views.
‘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,’ part of her comment stated.
‘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,’ she continued.
According to court filings, the comments were initially visible only on Mickens’ private Facebook account before a former high school classmate captured screenshots and reposted them publicly on social media.
The lawsuit alleged the images were later amplified by an X account with more than 600,000 followers, which identified Mickens’ employer and included contact information for her principal.
Mickens had not received a complaint throughout her 20-year teaching career, the lawsuit stated
On the day Charlie Kirk was killed, Mickens shared one of his previous quotes about gun rights before commenting that she did not condone violence, describing him as ‘a fascist full of hate’
Mickens, who had taught for more than two decades and was recognized as a 2022 Georgia Teacher of the Year finalist, alleged that district leaders then moved quickly to remove her from the classroom.
In the complaint filed last October, she argued her comments were made outside work, on her own time, and did not interfere with school operations or disrupt her teaching duties.
She also claimed administrators had effectively decided her fate before any meaningful review took place and alleged the district had already arranged for a replacement teacher before formally informing her she would not return.
The lawsuit further argued that her private Facebook account was separate from her professional profile and did not include students, parents or school employees beyond close friends.
Mickens’ attorneys also alleged the district lacked a clear policy governing teachers’ off-duty social media activity and claimed other employees who publicly expressed support for Kirk were not disciplined.
Among the remedies she originally sought were reinstatement, removal of disciplinary records from her personnel file, compensation for lost wages and damages for emotional distress and reputational harm.
Instead, both sides ultimately agreed to settle.
Under the agreement, Mickens will receive compensation for alleged emotional distress and her attorney’s legal fees, according to the settlement
Michelle Mickens, 55, has sued the Oglethorpe school district for an alleged unconstitutional firing for comments she posted on her Facebook account regarding Charlie Kirk
‘We are pleased to reach a mutually amicable settlement of this matter,’ said Sam Boyd, a senior supervising attorney with 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 settlement follows several other high-profile cases involving public employees disciplined over comments about Kirk’s death.
According to published reports cited by The AJC, a professor at the University of Tennessee received a $1.9 million settlement, while an Indiana University employee reached a $225,000 agreement and an Iowa teacher secured a settlement worth more than $200,000 in similar First Amendment disputes.
In the aftermath of Kirk’s killing, at least two teachers in Cobb County, Georgia, lost their jobs over posts that allegedly celebrated or condoned his death.
An Emory University professor and a Delta Air Lines flight attendant also faced employment consequences over their online comments.
