{"id":558855,"date":"2026-04-01T20:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/558855\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:27:10","slug":"westhampton-beach-teacher-laura-mara-says-she-was-wrongfully-fired-after-charlie-kirk-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/558855\/","title":{"rendered":"Westhampton Beach teacher Laura Mara says she was wrongfully fired after Charlie Kirk video"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Westhampton Beach music and choir teacher has filed suit against the district, saying she was wrongfully fired after posting a TikTok video about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

Laura Mara posted the 14-second video on Sept. 11, the day after Kirk was assassinated<\/a>, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Suffolk County Supreme Court. In the video, Mara said in part, “We are not celebrating his death. We are responding to his death the way he responded to” school shootings.<\/p>\n

She added, “And that response is thoughts and prayers. I guess that\u2019s the price you pay to freely bear arms in the United States of America,” the suit states.<\/p>\n

Mara\u2019s video was about \u201cgun safety,\u201d according to the suit. Her views are protected under the First Amendment and her comments were made after work hours, the complaint states.<\/p>\n

But after a parent reposted the video to Facebook, the suit says people complained about Mara at a school board meeting. She was placed on leave and in the weeks that followed, Mara \u2014 identified in the suit as a “homosexual” woman \u2014 alleges she\u00a0was accused of making\u00a0inappropriate comments\u00a0in class\u00a0based on stereotypes and tropes of LGBTQ+ behavior.<\/p>\n

Mara was fired in December, the suit states.<\/p>\n

Mara said the district\u2019s actions have caused her “significant emotional distress, humiliation, mental anguish\u00a0[and] damage to professional reputation.\u201d She is seeking at least $5\u00a0million\u00a0in compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaura Mara\u2019s most fundamental constitutional rights were violated by the Westhampton [Beach] Union Free School District in a situation made worse by the discrimination based on sexual orientation,” her Smithtown-based attorney,\u00a0Austin Smith, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

A district spokesperson said it does not comment on issues related to litigation.<\/p>\n

‘Excellent’ performance reviews<\/p>\n

Mara was hired by the Westhampton Beach district<\/a> in August 2024. She received \u201cexcellent\u201d performance reviews during her first year with the district, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Mara was not tenured but was previously tenured while employed in another Suffolk school district, according to her lawyer.<\/p>\n

After she posted her video about Kirk, the suit alleges people who attended a school board meeting on Sept. 15 lodged complaints against the teacher, including that she had a “feminist\u201d ideology and had made political statements in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours later, she was placed on leave and ordered to stay away from school property, allegedly without an investigation, the suit says.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges that from Sept. 15-29, the district raised unsubstantiated claims about her, including that she “openly” discussed her sex life in the classroom.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges the district\u2019s actions were discriminatory and driven in part by Mara’s\u00a0sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges Mara was given the option in October to resign rather than be “formally terminated,” but she refused.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Carolyn Probst, who is named as a defendant in the suit, then advised Mara that she was recommending her termination. Probst\u00a0cited five reasons for Mara’s termination, including that Mara had asked students questions that were sexual in nature and made an inappropriate gesture in class, according to a Nov. 5 letter responding to an inquiry from Mara’s attorney that was included as an exhibit in the suit.<\/p>\n

Mara was fired on Dec. 17, according to school board documents included in the lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many private and public sector employees across the country who made comments\u00a0after Kirk’s death that were viewed\u00a0as insensitive or celebratory were disciplined or fired, according to The Associated Press.<\/a> They included a comic book writer and educators in Tennessee and Mississippi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With AP<\/p>\n

\"Lorena<\/p>\n

Lorena Mongelli has been reporting for Newsday since 2021. Prior to that, she covered breaking news at the New York Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Westhampton Beach music and choir teacher has filed suit against the district, saying she was wrongfully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,526,91910,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-558855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-education","tag-kirk","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}