\n<\/p>\n
Right-wing social media accounts have embarked on a widespread name-and-shame campaign to out any college employees who have celebrated or spoken insensitively about Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | skynesher\/E+\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Two administrators are now out of a job and a graduate student lost an internship after making comments online that downplayed or celebrated the death of Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative founder of the campus-focused Turning Point USA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 36 hours since Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University, right-wing social media accounts have screenshotted and circulated several social media posts, likes and reposts from college faculty and staff members related to Kirk\u2019s death. In addition to the firings, the campaign to name and shame these individuals has led to death threats, Wired<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Late Wednesday, a student affairs administrator at Middle Tennessee State University was fired after posting \u201cinsensitive\u201d remarks on Facebook in response to Kirk\u2019s death. \u201cWe take great pride in the professionalism of our staff; in my long tenure with this university I\u2019ve never before had to dismiss someone for so carelessly undermining the work and mission of this fine institution,\u201d Middle Tennessee State president Sidney McPhee wrote in a statement Thursday. A university spokesperson confirmed the employee was Laura Sosh-Lightsy, an associate dean of student care and conduct who had worked at the university since 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLooks like ol\u2019 Charlie spoke his fate into existence. Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy,\u201d Sosh-Lightsy wrote in a Facebook post that has been circulated widely by right-wing accounts on social media. A university spokesperson did not confirm whether or not that specific post led to her firing but noted that \u201cher termination was related to her insensitive social media posts related to the horrific death of Mr. Kirk.\u201d Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, called for Sosh-Lightsy\u2019s firing on X, writing that she \u201cshould be ashamed of her post.\u201d Sosh-Lightsy did not respond to Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n On Thursday afternoon, University of Mississippi chancellor Glenn Boyce confirmed the firing of an unnamed staff member who he said \u201cre-shared hurtful, insensitive comments on social media regarding the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk.\u201d <\/p>\n Boyce didn’t provide specifics but noted that \u201cthese comments run completely counter to our institutional values of civility, fairness and respecting the dignity of each person.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At Baylor University, officials distanced the university from a graduate student who wrote \u201cthis made me giggle\u201d in response to a social media post sharing the news of Kirk\u2019s death. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are aware and greatly disappointed by a social media comment from a Baylor graduate student regarding the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. To make light of the death of a fellow human being is completely inappropriate and completely counter to Baylor\u2019s Christian mission. Baylor strives to be a community in which every individual is treated with respect\u2014in life and in death,\u201d a university statement said.<\/p>\n The graduate student\u2014whose online username includes \u201ccoach\u201d\u2014is not a member of the faculty nor a part of the athletics program, the statement clarified. Midway Middle School, where the graduate student was student teaching, also removed him from teaching there, KWTX reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is monitoring which universities are censoring employee speech, said Lindsie Rank, director of campus rights advocacy at FIRE. \u201cIt may not be moral to speak ill of the dead, but it is protected by the First Amendment so we\u2019re going to be keeping our eyes open for those situations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ryan Quinn contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Right-wing social media accounts have embarked on a widespread name-and-shame campaign to out any college employees who have celebrated or spoken insensitively about Kirk\u2019s death. Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | skynesher\/E+\/Getty Images Two administrators are now out of a job and a graduate student lost an internship after making comments online that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[7176,12773,376,10474,6457,12585,1996,12932,2161,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-21082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-charlie","9":"tag-cheering","10":"tag-death","11":"tag-fired","12":"tag-grad","13":"tag-kirks","14":"tag-members","15":"tag-punished","16":"tag-staff","17":"tag-student"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}