NC School District Pays $95K After Censoring Student’s Charlie Kirk Tribute

To settle ADF lawsuit, Charlotte school officials also agree to create student speech policy and exonerate student

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – To settle a lawsuit brought by a North Carolina high school student and her parents after school officials censored the student and repeatedly violated her constitutional rights, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education agreed to adopt a new student speech policy, exonerate the student, and pay $95,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the Ardrey Kell High School junior, who seeks to share her Christian faith and values with others at school. After the assassination of free speech advocate Charlie Kirk last year, she felt inspired to use her voice to commemorate Kirk’s strong public defense of Christianity. She received permission from the school to paint a message on the school’s “spirit rock”—a large boulder on school grounds frequently used for the expression of various messages—in support of Kirk’s Christian message. Within hours, however, school officials ordered her message to be censored and then engaged in public efforts to humiliate her and the friends who helped her, prompting the lawsuit, G.S. v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.

As part of the settlement, the board agreed to adopt this new policy, to issue a public statement clearing the student of all wrongdoing and expressing “regret that the student had this experience,” and to pay $95,000 in costs and attorneys’ fees.

“What happened to this student is outrageous. School officials should never censor, punish, or shame a student simply for sharing her views,” said ADF Senior Counsel Travis Barham. “Charlie Kirk boldly defended open and respectful discourse on school grounds literally until his last breath, and this courage inspired many across the country, including our client, whom Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials treated so abominably. It is long past time for school officials to learn that they cannot promote student viewpoints they like while punishing students whose views they dislike. We hope the new policy prevents school officials from subjecting any other students to the abuse our client experienced and will instead force them to respect every student’s constitutional rights.”

The student had seen other messages on the rock—ranging from support of National Football League teams to Black Lives Matter—so last September, after receiving permission from school officials, the student, her parents, and two fellow students painted it with the words “Freedom 1776” and “Live Like Kirk—John 11:25.” Within hours, the student learned from social media that officials ordered the “Live Like Kirk—John 11:25” portion to be painted over.

The next day, school officials sent out a schoolwide e-mail accusing her of “vandalism” and said that law enforcement was conducting an investigation; the statement aired on a local news station as well. The day after that, officials called the student out of class to write an official statement describing her actions and forced her to show them her phone logs. School officials never obtained permission from parents to go through her phone, nor did they inform the students or parents about their constitutional right to remain silent and contact an attorney during a criminal investigation.

A few days later, school officials unveiled a now-superseded speech code that only allowed “positive school spirit” and messages that “uphold the inclusive values of our school community,” allowing the officials to subjectively decide what speech is “positive.” It also explicitly banned students from expressing religious messages on the rock. When the officials formally concluded that the student, her parents, and her friends had not committed vandalism, they quietly closed the investigation with no apology and then claimed that they never accused or investigated her of anything.

Dowling PLLC attorney Craig D. Schauer, one of more than 5,200 attorneys in the ADF Attorney Network, serves as co-counsel for the family.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.