A former adjunct instructor at the University is suing University President Peter Mohler and other employees after she said she was terminated for social media posts she made after Charlie Kirk’s death.
Candice Hale, who worked in the Department of Gender and Race Studies, sued Mohler, Barefield College of Arts and Sciences Dean Joseph Paul Messina, Executive Vice President and Provost James Dalton, and Department Chair of Gender and Race Studies, Utz McKnight.
None of the defendants replied to immediate requests for comment sent Friday morning.
The suit claims that Hale’s First Amendment rights were violated and that she was fired despite her “lawful expression.”
On Sept. 11, one day after Kirk’s assassination, Hale posted on Facebook: “I do not mourn oppressors. I do not show them empathy. I don’t give a damn about evil racist, fascist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, mediocre white men who claim to be Christian individuals and then do everything Christ would not do on Earth. I will not mourn the wicked. We are getting closer and closer to the real assignment.”
Her attorney, Kira Fonteneau, said that the First Amendment should protect employees of government entities from retaliation when they express their viewpoints on public issues, and that Hale’s speech was not in any of the categories of speech that are not protected, such as threatening or violent words.
“She was terminated from her job with a public employer based solely on the content of what she had said online,” Fonteneau said. “We believe that the evidence will show that that is a violation of the First Amendment, and that’s why we filed our lawsuit.”
Hale is also suing Auburn University in a separate lawsuit, where she has been placed on administrative leave and banned from campus from her position as a lecturer teaching composition, world literature and African American literature.
Hale said that she felt “targeted” because of her position in the Department of Gender and Race Studies, following the passage of SB 129, a law that restricts teaching of “divisive concepts” in public schools in Alabama.
According to Hale, McKnight called her to inform her that Mohler had seen her post and that Messina would be writing up a letter to inform her of her termination. The suit claims that the termination letter did not cite any University prohibition or policy against speech.
The University did not respond to a request asking what policies govern employee and faculty social media usage.
“I was very emotional, like I started crying,” Hale said. “You’re telling me I would never be able to work at my alma mater again,” she said to McKnight during the call.
Hale graduated from the University in 2005 with a B.A. in English language and literature and in 2007 with a M.A. also in English language and literature.
“I’ve given my life to that institution. In a sense, it’s been a part of me, and it feels like a knife in the back,” Hale said.
She added that she was not given an opportunity to say goodbye to her students, nor explain what happened or why she would not be returning.
Hale said that stress following her termination has taken not only a mental, but a physical toll on her body, as she has had headaches, nausea and hasn’t been able to eat regularly since her “income and livelihood has been messed with.”
Filed in U.S. District Court, the suit says that after her firing, Hale has faced “monetary damages, reputational harm, as well as emotional distress and humiliation.”
The lawsuit requests awards for compensatory damages, punitive damages, costs and attorney’s fees, and asks that Hale be reinstated in her position.
“As a professor, it’s my goal to always speak truth to power and be a model of what I am teaching,” Hale said.
