Laura Sosh-Lightsy worked at Middle Tennessee State University for over two decades before getting fired over a social media post about Charlie Kirk. On Wednesday, she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the university.
On Sept. 10, Sosh-Lightsy posted on Facebook that she was not celebrating Kirk’s death, but she did not have sympathy for him due to his prior comments about gun violence. Her comments went viral, and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn chimed in on social media. Sosh-Lightsy was then fired, like others around the country, after posting critical comments about Kirk in the wake of his killing.
According to the complaint, Sosh-Lightsy’s posts about Kirk’s death and his comments on gun violence were made as a private citizen speaking on a matter of public concern, and, thus, protected by the First Amendment.
The court filing also alleges that MTSU fired her over this protected speech even though she claims it didn’t disrupt her job performance or any other MTSU operations. She further alleges that MTSU allowed third parties, like Blackburn, to engage in a “heckler’s veto” against Sosh-Lightsy, in which they bowed to public pressure to fire her for her viewpoints.
Sosh-Lightsy insists that it’s MTSU, not her, letting politics interfere with work.
“Who can’t do their job because of politics? Because I believe MTSU may have fired me because of politics,” she told WPLN News. “You fired me because the institution is biased. You are being bought out for political maneuvering.”
The complaint also lists as defendants MTSU President Sidney McPhee and Danny Kelly, MTSU interim vice president for student affairs and dean of students.
20 years of work gone in a few hours
During her 21-year career at MTSU, Sosh-Lightsy often attended trainings for what to do in case of a mass shooting on campus. This, she said, left her appalled by Kirk’s comments that having the Second Amendment was worth the cost of “some gun deaths.”
Kirk was a conservative political commentator who regularly toured college campuses to debate students. He was fatally shot on Sept. 10 during the first day of his fall college tour in Orem, Utah.
As she often did on political matters, Sosh-Lightsy took to her private Facebook account to comment on Kirk’s death. At 7:03 p.m., she posted, “Looks like ol’ Charlie spoke his fate into existence. Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy.”
She realized some people misunderstood her message after she got some negative comments. She wanted to clarify that her goal was to point out the irony that Kirk died by gun violence after saying it was a natural byproduct of the Second Amendment.
She posted again a 7:17 p.m.: “I’m not celebrating the loss of Charlie Kirk’s life. Violence is not the answer. I am celebrating the loss of his message of violence, in an increasingly violent world, which is partially because of him.”
She made a final post at 8:55 p.m. which she said was an attempt to lighten the mood. The post read, in part, “Let’s talk about something positive,” and shared information about an upcoming Halloween event for elderly dogs in need of a home.
While impacted by the negative feedback, she went on with her regular nighttime routine and prepared for bed.
No longer looking at social media, she was shocked by a message from her direct supervisor stating that someone — a former MTSU student — shared her posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. She apologized that he had to deal with this and said, incredulously, that she guessed she was getting fired for speaking her opinion.
Still, she said that she didn’t really think she would be fired.
“Surely, they’re going to ask me questions. My employer doesn’t even know if I made these posts, right?” she said. “And surely I’m going to have an opportunity to explain, but that turned out not to be the case.”
Blackburn took to the social media platform X and called for her immediate firing.
According to the complaint, six minutes later, MTSU President Sidney McPhee’s executive assistant called her to say that the president would be calling her soon and she needed to take the call.
McPhee called her at 10:42 p.m. and said that she was terminated because her comments about Kirk caused irreparable harm to MTSU and she could no longer be trusted to work with students.
Stunned, Sosh-Lightsy replied, “no,” when asked if she had any questions.
“In the span of three hours, over 20 years of life work was gone because of a comment on my personal Facebook page,” she said.
Threats, shock and depression
Sosh-Lightsy could barely get out of bed the next day. Her Facebook account was flooded with messages calling her derogatory names and threatening to come to her house and kill her.
She panicked when the doorbell rang.
“My first thought was, ‘Oh gosh, like, are they coming to get me?’ ” she said. “So I go, and it’s my friend, and she’s like, ‘Laura, I need you to pack a bag, and you need to get out of the house.’ ”
She later found out that her personal details including her address and phone number were posted on the internet. She left with her dog and went into hiding.
She said she cried almost nonstop for a few days before her new reality — one without a job or healthcare — set in.
Sosh-Lightsy said that she has applied for about 45 jobs — ranging everywhere from Big Lots to other colleges. She’s only gotten silence or rejection.
People who once served as references are scared to be associated with her.
“This is bigger than me. Yes, I’m in the mire, I am in the quicksand, I don’t have a job, I’m eating ramen noodles,” she said. “But I need people to look beyond their personal, political beliefs to see the big picture … this isn’t okay.”
‘It’s like I killed someone’
The complaint states that MTSU ran a red-alert banner on the top of its home page on Sept. 11 announcing Sosh-Lightsy’s termination.
She said the alert is typically reserved for campus emergencies, like lockdowns or severe weather alerts, and she’s never seen it used to announce a faculty member’s termination.
“It’s like I killed someone,” she said. “And I’m dangerous and we have to let everyone know that this menace to society is gone.”
Jimmy Hart, an MTSU spokesperson, told WPLN News that the red-alert banner is a critical notification system used for incidents that create a dangerous threat. However, he said that McPhee felt Sosh-Lightsy’s termination warranted this response due to the disruptive nature of her social media posts.
“It was a way to cast a really large net about what the president felt was an important message and this was the most effective way to do that,” he said.
On the same day, MTSU sent her a termination letter stating its position that she was unable to objectively “resolve any student conduct matters, particularly those involving students whose opinions align with Mr. Kirk’s.” It also claimed that her posts caused a “disruption and interference with University operations.”
Sosh-Lightsy said they never cited what those disruptions entailed. She also refutes the claim that she can’t work objectively, noting that she’s worked with students from all ends of the political spectrum, including members of the MTSU chapter of Turning Point, USA — the political organization founded by Kirk.
Her attorney, Melody Fowler Green, told WPLN News that MTSU’s conduct may have a chilling effect on free speech. (Green is a member of Nashville Public Radio’s board.)
“I think that the termination itself sets a dangerous precedent for the First Amendment and Tennesseans’ rights to voice their opinions,” she said. “It’s very dangerous that we have legislators who are targeting individuals for their speech.”
Blackburn did not respond to a request for comment regarding people being threatened after she spoke about them on social media platforms.
Sosh-Lightsy has also filed a grievance complaint with MTSU that’s in the early stages.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM