DUNCAN — A former Spartanburg area teacher’s aide has filed a federal lawsuit against her former school district alleging her First Amendment rights were violated in her firing over online posts critical of Charlie Kirk, the conservative podcaster and campus activist shot to death Sept. 10 on a Utah college campus.

Teacher’s aide Lauren Vaughn, who worked at River Ridge Elementary School and was the school’s support employee of the year in 2021 , said she was fired Sept. 15 after Spartanburg County School District 5 officials said they received complaints about a since-deleted Facebook post she made the day Kirk was assassinated.

Her dismissal is among a slew of K-12 and college employees who have lost their jobs across South Carolina over anti-Kirk comments over the past week.

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