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Swierc v. Mearns, Ball State University

From September 2025 to May 2026
Ball State University (Public college or university)
Muncie, IN

Identity of Speakers

  • Suzanne Swierc
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Director of Health Promotion and Advocacy at Ball State University

Resources

Additional Information

  • Incident Nature:
    Lawsuit
    Social media
  • Incident Political Orientation:
    Not Clear
  • Incident Responses:
    Staff Sanctioned
    Litigation
    Title IX or other federal statute
  • Incident Status:
    In litigation Federal District Court
    Settled
  • Was Speech Code incident

Summary

On September 22, 2025, Suzanne Swierc, former Director of Health Promotion and Advocacy at Ball State University, filed a federal lawsuit against university president Geoffrey Mearns. The complaint alleged that her termination five days earlier, on September 17, 2025, violated her First Amendment rights and sought damages, declaratory relief, and removal of any record of her firing.

The lawsuit arose after Swierc made a private Facebook post about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. In the post, she described his death as a “tragedy” while also criticizing the “violence, fear, and hatred he sowed.” Although the post was shared with limited privacy settings, a screenshot was circulated publicly and amplified by Todd Rokita, generating widespread backlash.

Swierc was terminated shortly after the post spread online, with the university citing significant disruption and concerns about her leadership role. Her attorneys argued that any disruption was caused by third parties who publicized the post, not by Swierc herself.

Swierc publicly maintained that she did not regret her comments and viewed them as protected speech made in her capacity as a private citizen on a matter of public concern. She also reported receiving harassment and threats after the post was widely disseminated, underscoring the broader controversy surrounding the incident.

In May 2026, the parties reached a settlement resolving the case. The settlement resolves Swierc’s claims and provides that she will receive $225,000. The agreement also allows Ball State employees to serve as references for Swierc and provides that, if asked, her supervisors will acknowledge her positive contributions to health promotion and advocacy work at the university. The agreement ended the litigation without a judicial ruling on the merits and without an admission of wrongdoing by the university, and the case was dismissed pursuant to the settlement.