A former Ball State University employee who was fired over a private Facebook post about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing will receive $225,000 as part of a legal settlement resolving claims that the university violated her constitutional rights.
The settlement was announced Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the federal lawsuit last year on behalf of Suzanne Swierc against Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns.
Swierc had served as director of health promotion and advocacy at the university’s Muncie, Indiana, campus before her dismissal in September.
University officials said at the time that her social media post had caused “significant disruption” on campus.
In the Facebook post, Swierc described Kirk’s killing as a “tragedy” but also called it a “reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed.”
She added: “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.”
According to her attorneys, the post was shared only with her private Facebook audience before screenshots circulated online.
The ACLU argued that Swierc was acting as a private citizen discussing a matter of public concern and that the university’s decision to terminate her employment violated First Amendment protections.
Stevie Pactor, an ACLU attorney in Indiana, said the settlement reflected constitutional protections against retaliation by public institutions.
Mearns defended the university’s decision in a statement distributed to campus leaders.
He said the backlash generated by the post threatened student enrollment and fundraising efforts and triggered numerous complaints, including some threats of violence.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was killed by a gunman on Sept. 10, 2025, on the campus of a Utah university.
Following his death, several workers in both public and private sectors lost their jobs after posting comments or memes related to the killing online.
Some of those cases have also ended in large settlements.
Earlier this month, a Florida state agency agreed to pay $485,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a former biologist fired over reposting a meme involving Kirk.
In January, Austin Peay State University in Tennessee reinstated a professor and agreed to a $500,000 settlement tied to a separate social media post involving Kirk.
Other lawsuits connected to similar dismissals remain pending.