Sen. Marsha Blackburn responded to Sidelines’ request for comment after MTSU fired an assistant dean on Wednesday following pressure from the Republican senator.
Blackburn urged MTSU administration to fire Sosh-Lightsy, the assistant dean of students and the Office of Student Care and Conduct. Sosh-Lightsy’s firing is part of a national trend impacting university employees nationwide.
“No university employee who celebrates the assassination of Charlie Kirk should be trusted to shape the minds of the next generation in the classroom,” Blackburn said. “The firing of this MTSU employee was the right decision, and it sends a clear message that this kind of reprehensible behavior must not be tolerated.”
At least two other schools in Tennessee have fired or suspended faculty for social media posts they made following Kirk’s death.
Two East Tennessee State University employees were placed on administrative leave on Wednesday for sharing posts about the Charlie Kirk shooting, and Austin Peay State University fired a professor on Friday for his online remarks about Kirk as well.
Can public university employees be fired for what they post online?
Yes, according to the recent case law regarding government employees’ speech.
In 2016, Danyelle Bennett, a 9-1-1 operator in Nashville, Tennessee, was fired for posting a racial slur online, but sued Metro Nashville Government for First Amendment violations.
The case made its way to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, but ultimately, the court upheld that Bennett’s firing was constitutional.
“At issue in this case is whether a public employee’s use of a racial slur when discussing politics on Facebook is sufficiently protected by the First Amendment to outweigh a government agency’s interest in having an efficient workplace and effectively serving the public,” U.S. District Court Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey wrote in her opinion.
Sidelines reached out to the ACLU of Tennessee for comment, but they declined.
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