LEXINGTON, GEORGIA, July 6 (Nationwide Times) — An Oglethorpe County, Georgia, school district paid former teacher Michelle Mickens $270,420 in emotional-distress damages and $17,080 in attorney fees under a settlement that required her to resign and barred her from future employment with the district, according to the settlement agreement and court filings.
The agreement also says the district will provide Mickens a positive employment reference, and it says the school system denied her allegations. Mickens had worked as an English teacher at Oglethorpe County High School and was identified in court papers as a former Georgia Teacher of the Year finalist.
Mickens sued the district and Superintendent Beverly Levine in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia after she was placed on indefinite leave following a social-media post about Charlie Kirk’s death. The complaint filed on her behalf by the Southern Poverty Law Center and co-counsel alleged district leaders pressured her to resign after the post.
In the post, Mickens said she did not condone violence and wrote that “the world is a bit safer without him,” while also quoting Kirk on gun deaths and the Second Amendment, according to the complaint.
Court filings show the case was dismissed after the parties signed the settlement in June.
