CMS settles student lawsuit over Charlie Kirk tribute on Ardrey Kell spirit rock
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education settled a lawsuit over the district’s handling of a tribute to political activist Charlie Kirk painted on a high school spirit rock, the board announced Monday.
The deal includes an agreement for the board to pay nearly $100,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees, the group representing the family who sued said.
The parents of an Ardrey Kell High School student filed the lawsuit in December. They alleged the district violated their daughter’s freedom of speech after the student painted the spirit rock outside the south Charlotte school in tribute to Kirk after he was assassinated in September. The painted messages said “Live like Kirk; John 11:25” and “Freedom 1776.”
The rock, which sits at the entrance to Ardrey Kell, operates like a billboard and is often painted with messages for students’ birthdays or messages of school spirit.
The school’s principal, Susan Nichols, sent a message to families Sept. 14 saying the tribute was unauthorized, and it was painted over, The Charlotte Observer reported previously. Nichols’ original message called the painting “vandalism” and said it violated the CMS Code of Student Conduct. It also said law enforcement had been contacted and the school was cooperating with the investigation.
But the district reversed course in October, saying the painting was not vandalism and didn’t violate the district’s Code of Student Conduct. CMS also said law enforcement was not contacted to investigate the incident.
The painting “did not violate the Code of Student Conduct or other school system policies in place at the time,” the board reiterated in its Monday statement announcing the settlement.
“It was not an act of vandalism, and the school did not report the incident to law enforcement. The Board regrets that the student had this experience,” the latest statement said.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit Christian legal advocacy group that represented the student’s family in the case, said in a separate statement Monday the CMS board agreed to adopt a new student speech policy, “exonerate the student” and pay $95,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.
The school board adopted a new “Student Free Speech” policy last week, Monday’s CMS statement noted.
“The Board fully supports students exercising their right to free speech that ensures that schools remain safe places for all of our students and promotes productive civic discourse,” Board Vice Chair Gregory “Dee” Rankin said in a statement.
Observer reporter Rebecca Noel contributed reporting.
This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 11:50 AM.
