An assistant professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) sued the school this week after being placed on administrative leave following the comment she made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Tamar Shirinian, who taught anthropology at the university, made an inappropriate comment after Kirk was assassinated in September.
Shirinian claimed on September 12 that the “world is better off” without Kirk.
“Even those who are claiming to be sad for his wife and kids,” wrote the professor, “his kids are better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath.” She then called Kirk’s widow a “sick f*** for marrying him.”
Three days later, UTK began termination proceedings against the professor on September 15.
Shirinian (pictured above) wrote an appeal letter to UTK a week later, in which she regretted her actions and denounced political violence.
“I do not endorse violence and never have endorsed violence. While I despise Mr. Kirk’s bigoted, often hateful rhetoric, he did not deserve to be shot. No one does,” she wrote.
In her lawsuit against UTK, the professor, who is still suspended, asked to be taken off administrative leave and allowed back into the classroom to teach students.
Shirinian alleged that her First Amendment rights were violated and caused her “adverse actions as a result of her political speech.”.
The lawsuit said the professor commented on Kirk as a private citizen on her personal time and on her personal device without any reference to UTK.
“Shirinian’s comment involved matters of great public concern—the controversial political figure Mr. Charlie Kirk and his messages of hate, genocide aplogia, sexism and bigotry,” the lawsuit stated.
“Whatever governmental needs UTK may have as a public employer, they are insufficient to justify gagging Dr. Shirinian’s private right to speak on these matters of great public concern,” it added.
Throughout her lawsuit, the professor listed off comments made by Kirk on topics such as women, black people, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, Islam, Gaza, and his alleged antisemitism.
The lawsuit stated the professor followed Kirk’s “activist career and found his public political comments terrifying, infuriating and factually incorrect on a wide array of issues.”
“Mr. Kirk espoused many conservative political views considered by many to be radical,” the lawsuit noted.
To justify her comment, the lawsuit recalled what Kirk said about the First Amendment when he was alive. The lawsuit cited a social media post he made that said: “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And all of it is protected by the First Amendment.”
Since Shirinian’s comment came to light, she has received a “significant amount of hate mail,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also claimed “Republican politicians and lawmakers put pressure” on UTK to punish Shirinian for her comments about Kirk. It cited Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02)’s Facebook post on September 13, where he said higher education workers who made “classless, almost demonic attacks of Mr. Kirk…need to be gone, absolutely, 100%.”
Shirinian filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for Eastern District of Tennessee Northern Division.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com.|
Photo “Tamar Shirinian” by the University of Tennessee.
