A Spartanburg County elementary school teaching assistant fired for a Facebook posting after the Charlie Kirk killing earlier this month has filed suit in federal court, alleging her First Amendment rights to freedom of speech were violated by the firing.

The lawsuit by former teaching assistant Lauren Vaughn also alleges the dismissal by Spartanburg County School District 5 violated her 14th Amendment right to due process of law.

Vaughn’s firing was one of a number of speedy job terminations related to comments by public and private workers in South Carolina and across the country in the wake of Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination at a Utah college where he was speaking.

Kirk, a conservative activist who sparked the youth vote for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, was a revered

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