Florida college fired woman accused of celebrating Charlie Kirk's death. She sues

MIAMI — A Florida college fired a woman after she shared her political views of Charlie Kirk following his death, accusing her of celebrating the conservative commentator’s killing, a federal lawsuit says.

Erika Santos, of Brevard County, who worked as a grant accountant at Eastern Florida State College, made two posts about Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, on her private Facebook page on Sept. 10, the day he was fatally shot, according to a complaint she filed Nov. 12 in the Middle District of Florida. That afternoon, Kirk was publicly killed at a Turning Point event at Utah Valley University.

Santos added her own commentary to the posts she reshared from other social media pages, expressing that she disagreed with Kirk politically, the complaint says. One of the social media page’s post criticized Kirk as against abortion, immigration, women’s rights and called him “very racist.”

Santos’ comments, which were only public to her Facebook friends, did not express she supported Kirk’s killing or violence, as later suggested by Eastern Florida State College, according to the filing.

The college was alerted to her posts, then ultimately fired her in retaliation for what she shared privately, her attorneys argue in the complaint, saying, her social media content is protected by the First Amendment.

About a week after Santos shared her views on Kirk, the college’s human resources office received an anonymous letter with screenshots of Santos’ online posts and immediately suspended her, according to the complaint.

A suspension letter explained she was suspended without pay “pending investigation of (her) recent social media posts regarding Charlie Kirk,” the filing says.

After the investigation, she was fired on Oct. 16, according to the complaint.

The college’s associate vice president of communications, Suzanne Rains, said in an emailed statement to McClatchy News that following the investigation, “it appeared the comments condoned if not celebrated the death of Charlie Kirk, a death that resulted from gun violence on a college campus in front of thousands of college students.”

“Professionalism and good judgment are expected of all employees, but especially those responsible for handling public money, and in this circumstance these comments did not align with our expectations nor our institutional mission,” Rains added.

In Santos’ termination letter attached to the complaint as an exhibit, a human resources employee wrote that Santos’ comments were “repugnant, divisive, political in nature.”

“In today’s world, for an EFSC employee to condone or celebrate an act of gun violence occurring on a college campus anywhere in this country is simply unfathomable and further undermines EFSC’s ability to provide a safe learning and working environment,” the letter continued.

Santos’ lawsuit names the members of Eastern Florida State College’s board of trustees and the human resources employee, who the complaint says was in charge of her firing.

“I never imagined that exercising my right to express any political opinion — especially privately — could cost me my job,” Santos said in a news release from the ACLU of Florida.

The organization, along with Kwall Barack Nadeau PLLC law firm, are representing the case.

In the complaint, her attorneys write that Santos is one of multiple employees punished by the state of Florida, “through its public institutions,” for sharing “protected political viewpoints.”

Santos had worked for Eastern Florida State College as a clerical accounting employee between July 2019 and January 2023, then was rehired in February 2025, according to the filing.

With her firing, Santos said “Suddenly, my ability to pay my mortgage and my child’s daycare became uncertain.”

Like Santos, state employees in Florida and beyond have been fired over online posts critical of Kirk following his assassination, the Hill reported. Several have filed lawsuits.

In a Nov. 10 hearing on a federal lawsuit brought by former Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Brittney Brown, who was fired over a social media joke she shared about Kirk, a judge seemed to side with her, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. The judge suggested that her online post, which involved a joke about whales, is likely protected by the First Amendment.

The post said, “The whales are deeply saddened to learn of the shooting of charlie kirk, haha just kidding, they care exactly as much as charlie kirk cared about children being shot in their classrooms, which is to say, not at all,” the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Similar to Santos, Brown had privately shared another social media account’s post, privately to her Instagram story, according to the newspaper.

Santos’ lawsuit says that while other Eastern Florida State College employees have shared “inflammatory political content without consequence,” the college “selectively disciplined Santos based on her viewpoint.”

With the case, Santos is asking to be reinstated to her position. She is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and demands a jury trial.

“Santos joined a public debate and expressed her own views; her state bosses disagreed with those views and fired her — a clear First Amendment violation,” Michelle Morton, a staff attorney of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement, referring to online discourse about Kirk.

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