{"id":22345,"date":"2025-11-12T21:09:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/2025\/11\/12\/florida-college-employee-sues-over-firing\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T21:09:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T02:09:38","slug":"florida-college-employee-sues-over-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/2025\/11\/12\/florida-college-employee-sues-over-firing\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida college employee sues over firing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to the Case<\/h2>\n

A former Eastern Florida State College employee is suing the school after she was fired for her social media posts about the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk.
\nErika Santos, who worked in accounting and grant compliance at Eastern Florida since 2019, was terminated in October. She filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Background on the Lawsuit<\/h2>\n

Santos, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, claims the Brevard County college retaliated against her for expressing her First Amendment right to free speech and discriminated against her for her political viewpoint. \u201cWe all have the right to free speech, and you don\u2019t lose that when you work for the government,\u201d said Michelle Morton, an ACLU attorney.<\/p>\n

Details of the Incident<\/h2>\n

The college did not fire employees in the past who posted strong political opinions online but then singled out Santos based on \u201cher viewpoint,\u201d the lawsuit says. Kirk, 31, a confidant of President Donald Trump, was shot to death on a Utah college campus Sept. 10. A Christian father of two, he was the founder of Turning Point USA and demonstrated a combative new approach to conservatism that openly criticized racial justice movements, the news media and LGBTQ+ rights. Critics said his views perpetuated racist, anti-immigrant and anti-feminist ideas.<\/p>\n

Santos’ Social Media Posts<\/h2>\n

Santos\u2019 Facebook posts indicated she disliked Kirk\u2019s politics, court documents show. But, as other users disagreed with her, she also said she did not approve of his assassination. She also wrote that Kirk\u2019s shooting had links to his rhetoric. \u201cI never said it SHOULD happen. I\u2019m simply saying he\u2019s not a hero or a martyr. He\u2019s a victim. Period,\u201d Santos wrote.<\/p>\n

College Response<\/h2>\n

A spokesperson for Eastern Florida said the college does not comment on active lawsuits. A campus security officer, Ricky Carswell, investigated Santos\u2019 online posts and called them \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and claimed they condoned Kirk\u2019s assassination, according to his findings, which are now part of the court filings.<\/p>\n

Selective Discipline<\/h2>\n

The lawsuit says Eastern Florida selectively disciplined Santos \u201cbased on her viewpoint while ignoring comparable conduct by others.\u201d It notes other instances of Eastern Florida employees posting about politics, but not being punished, including Carswell. The lawsuit includes a screenshot of a 2013 post from Carswell claiming then-President Barack Obama supported Al-Qaeda. He did not receive a punishment similar to Santos\u2019, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

Wider Implications<\/h2>\n

Kirk\u2019s assassination in September sparked strong and mixed responses on social media, with some mourning him and others resurfacing Kirk\u2019s comments they disliked, including one on gun control where he said that \u201csome\u201d gun deaths were worth it to preserve Second Amendment rights. Florida quickly cracked down on state employees, such as public school teachers, who posted online posts about Kirk.<\/p>\n

Nationwide Context<\/h2>\n

Nationwide, more than a dozen employees, from a Tennessee high school science teacher to a landscape supervisor at Auburn University, have sued arguing their terminations violated the First Amendment, according to The Hill. In Florida, Brittney Brown, a state biologist fired from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for posts about Kirk, faced a federal judge in Tallahassee this week after she sued the state.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

The ACLU is also helping to represent Brown, and Morton said these lawsuits could help slow down the \u201cerosion\u201d of free speech rights in Florida. \u201cRight now it\u2019s your state employees, but if you don\u2019t push back against the government when they\u2019re challenging people, eventually that just spreads to more and more people,\u201d she said. The Associated Press contributed to this story.<\/p>\n

FAQs<\/h2>\n