Charlotte School Learns Expensive Lesson After Smearing Student Over Charlie Kirk Tribute
It is coming up on a year since the murder of TPUSA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk,
and the rallying cry to "Be Like Charlie" continues to resonate in the
generations who he so greatly inspired. Two days after his murder in
September of 2025, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg student named Gabby Stout
painted a patriotic message on the school's spirit rock to honor
Charlie. Despite receiving permission from the school to do this, school
officials painted over the rock, claiming it had been vandalized and
making an entire show of it.
The school administrators broadcast a message about the purported
vandalism to the entire school, stating that whoever did this was in
violation of the school honor code, and that law enforcement would mount
an investigation. When Stout acknowledged she was the one who painted
the rock, the administrators attempted to punish her for her speech. In
an interview in 2025, Stout said she was pulled from class, questioned
by administrators, ordered to provide a written statement of apology,
and to surrender her phone for inspection.
The Stout family
pushed back, filing a federal lawsuit in December against the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district for sweeping violations of Stout's
First Amendment rights.
Six months later, the school district and Stout reached a settlement that favored not only Stout's free speech rights, but the speech rights of any student who would come after her.
This settlement is a vindication not just for young Gabby Stout, but for all who truly stand for the First Amendment.
A
North Carolina high school student has reached a $95,000 settlement
with her school district after she was publicly accused of vandalism and
told she was under police investigation. The controversy revolved
around painting a campus "spirit rock" with a Bible verse and patriotic
message in tribute to the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Fox
News Digital has learned that a settlement was reached this week
between the family of Ardrey Kell High School student Gabby Stout and
the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. Under the terms of the
agreement, the school board will adopt a new free speech policy, issue a
public statement expressing regret, and pay $95,000 to Stout's legal
team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
The settlement comes six
months after the Stouts filed a federal lawsuit alleging rampant
violations of the student's First Amendment rights.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools just paid $95K for a lesson on the First Amendment.
That
payment is part of a settlement with Gabby Stout— the high school
student who painted a patriotic tribute to Charlie Kirk on a spirit rock
last year.
Although Gabby had gotten permission—and although
other students had been allowed to paint messages in support of causes
like Black Lives Matter—school officials responded to Gabby’s message by
painting over it, publicly accusing her of vandalism, interrogating her
at school, and calling the police.
@ADFLegal helped Gabby sue the
district late last year. Now, besides the payment, the district has
issued a statement of regret for its actions and changed its policies to
respect students’ free speech rights.
Schools can’t censor
student speech just because they don’t like its message. ADF is thrilled
to get this vindication for Gabby, who courageously lived out her own
admonition to “live like Kirk.” I think Charlie would be proud.
Here
is where this school — and too many other so-called learning
institutions — made their mistake: deeming one person's First Amendment
expression acceptable, while condemning another's as unacceptable. Stout
rightly received the justice and the acknowledgement that she deserved,
and Charlotte-Mecklenburg got the comeuppance it deserved for its over-the-top targeting of Stout.
Stout told Fox News Digital the settlement ultimately clears her name.
"This
settlement finally reinforces that I did nothing wrong, and the school
system has to admit that publicly," she said. "After I got permission to
paint a message sharing my faith in God, school officials accused me of
vandalism in front of my whole school and my entire community. Then
they put me through an unfair investigation. They never should have
treated me this way, and by saying they regret that I had this
experience, they are finally acknowledging that publicly."
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