MUNCIE — Suzanne Swierc will receive $225,000 to settle a federal lawsuit against Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns over her firing for a private Facebook post about Charlie Kirk. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on Swierc’s behalf after she was terminated in September 2025 from her position as director of health promotion and advocacy at Ball State’s Muncie, Indiana, campus.

Ball State University cited Swierc’s Facebook post as the sole reason for her termination, saying it caused “significant disruption” to the campus. In the post, Swierc referred to 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.” Her attorneys said her Facebook page was set to private, but someone took a screenshot that was widely shared online. Stevie Pactor, an ACLU attorney in Indiana, said Swierc’s firing violated her constitutional rights because she was “speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern.” Pactor added, “The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that.”

Geoffrey Mearns defended the firing in a statement sent to campus leaders, saying Swierc’s post triggered a flood of outraged calls and emails. He said some people threatened to withhold donations, at least one parent planned to withdraw her children from the school, and some callers threatened violence. Mearns stated, “The reaction was extraordinarily damaging to our University’s reputation and image, and it was exceptionally disruptive to our mission and our people.”

Mearns also said the backlash threatened student enrollment and fundraising. He described the $225,000 payment as a “modest monetary payment” that was substantially less than the cost of litigating the lawsuit. Similar cases involving employees fired for social media posts about Kirk are still pending, while other institutions have settled comparable lawsuits, including a Florida agency that paid $485,000 and Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, which paid $500,000 to a reinstated professor.