Conservatives went on a social media rampage following Charlie Kirk’s shooting death to find what they deemed to be inappropriate comments about the Turning Point USA co-founder to get them fired from their jobs. But the wave of employee terminations has been short-lived.
The New York Times reports:
A tenured professor who was briefly fired by Austin Peay State University in Tennessee in September for what the school’s president said was an insensitive social media post about the killing of Charlie Kirk will get a $500,000 settlement and his job back.
The abrupt firing, which the university acknowledged soon afterward had violated the professor’s due-process rights, was made after the professor’s post drew a backlash from conservatives, including Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee.
The institution, which is a public school based in Clarksville, Tenn., about 45 miles northwest of Nashville, backtracked less than two weeks later, placing the professor on a paid suspension for the rest of the fall semester while it pursued his termination.
The professor, Darren Michael, 56, who teaches acting and directing, was reinstated on Dec. 30 as part of the settlement with the university, which ended a more than three-month dispute over his employment.
