A former assistant dean at Middle Tennessee State University is suing the school's leaders after she was fired in September following social media remarks regarding the death of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Laura Sosh-Lightsy, formerly assistant dean of students at the Murfreesboro university, filed the lawsuit against MTSU President Sidney McPhee and Danny Kelley, interim vice president for student affairs and dean of students, on Nov. 5.
Screenshot from MTSU website's faculty page for Laura Sosh-Lightsy
In the lawsuit, filed in the United State District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Sosh-Lightsy claims her first First Amendment rights were infringed upon and she was punished for “engaging in constitutionally protected speech on a matter of undeniable public concern.”
Sosh-Lightsy worked at MTSU for more than 20 years until she was fired several hours after making Facebook posts on a personal account. “Looks like ol’ Charlie spoke his fate into existence," Sosh-Lightsy wrote following Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. "Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy.” In another post, she wrote, “Hate begets hate. Still no sympathy. You get back what you put into the world tenfold.”
The lawsuit says McPhee made an online statement only a few minutes after a phone call with Sosh-Lightsy. University leaders claimed that Sosh-Lightsy's posts caused a "disruption and interference with university operation.”
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Sosh-Lightsy maintains that no disruption or interference occurred as a result of her social media posts. She alleges that the university “caved to political pressure” from U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Matthew Hurtt, a former MTSU student and Republican Party operative who began sharing her posts widely online. Blackburn called for Sosh-Lightsy’s firing in a social media post.
Sosh-Lightsy says she received dozens of “harassing and threatening" messages following her termination, including one death threat for which she filed a police report with the Murfreesboro Police Department.
According to the lawsuit, Sosh-Lightsy is seeking declaratory relief and damages against the MTSU leaders for their “unconstitutional conduct.”
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
