Charlie Kirk was shot dead on a college campus in September.
Now a professor who called him a "disgusting psychopath" and said his kids were better off without him is about to get nearly $2 million from that same university system.
And the people signing that check never voted for her.
What Tamar Shirinian Actually Said
Tamar Shirinian was an anthropology professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville – teaching courses including Queer Anthropology and Feminist Anthropology – when Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025.
She went on Facebook that same day.
"The world is better off without him in it," she wrote.
She wasn't done.
She said Kirk's children were "better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath like him" and called his widow a "sick f—" for having married him.
UT Chancellor Donde Plowman didn't mince words when she fired Shirinian in February.
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"Your words celebrated a gruesome murder, which horrifically took place on a college campus similar to our own," Plowman wrote, "and then went on to callously demean the grief and loss felt by the widow and young children of the victim while also mocking any grief felt by others who sympathized with the surviving family."
Shirinian was placed on administrative leave in September, fired on February 11, and later apologized – calling her comments "insensitive" and "uncharacteristic."
Then she sued.
Tennessee Is Now the Nation's Most Expensive Charlie Kirk Apology Tour
Shirinian filed her federal lawsuit in October 2025, claiming UT violated her First Amendment rights by retaliating against her for protected speech.
Eight months later, the University of Tennessee System Board of Trustees approved a $1.9 million settlement – approved in a nonpublic session after the board's annual meeting, naturally.
She doesn't get her job back.
And she's not alone.
Austin Peay State University – another Tennessee public university – already paid theater professor Darren Michael $500,000 after firing him over a post about Kirk's death.
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That settlement included a formal apology from the university president and a written acknowledgment that APSU "did not follow the required tenure termination process."
Add the two settlements together and Tennessee taxpayers are now on the hook for $2.4 million in Charlie Kirk-related payouts – before the $1.9 million even clears the governor's desk.
It still needs approval from Governor Bill Lee and Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
The Pattern Every Conservative Needs to Understand
The same sequence has now played out at three Tennessee universities.
A conservative icon gets assassinated.
Professors post celebrations and mockery on social media.
Universities panic – under political pressure from legislators and the public – and fire those professors without following their own procedures.
Professors sue.
Taxpayers write the check.
Rinse. Repeat.
The University of South Dakota fired tenured art professor Phillip Michael Cook in September 2025 for calling Kirk a "hate-spreading Nazi" on Facebook.
A federal judge ordered the university to reinstate him within weeks, finding the First Amendment likely protected the speech.
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In each case, the universities moved fast and fired without following tenure procedures – the exact legal vulnerability that turned into six and seven-figure settlements.
That's the mechanism: public university employees retain First Amendment rights even when their speech is repugnant, and when an employer retaliates without following its own disciplinary procedures, the university loses and the taxpayer pays.
UT Board Chair John Compton said it himself at the meeting: continuing litigation "would require significant time and attention, and financial resources" – resources he said were better directed toward the university's mission.
Translation: they knew they were going to lose.
The Bill Is Coming to Your Door
Shirinian's attorney called it a "mutually acceptable resolution."
That's a nice way to say the University of Tennessee looked at a jury trial set for January 2027 and decided it was cheaper to write the check now.
She lost her job.
She kept her $1.9 million.
And somewhere in Tennessee, a taxpayer who voted for Trump, who loved Charlie Kirk, who watched him speak on college campuses for a decade, is going to fund this settlement through their tax dollars.
That's the university system working exactly as designed.
Sources:
- Rachel del Guidice, "Tennessee university to pay professor $1.9M after calling Charlie Kirk a 'disgusting psychopath,'" Fox News, June 30, 2026.
- Knox News, "University of Tennessee to pay $1.9M to professor Tamar Shirinian fired over Charlie Kirk comment," June 29, 2026.
- Daily Beacon, "Board of trustees approves $1.9M settlement with Shirinian over Charlie Kirk comment," June 30, 2026.
- Washington Times, "Tennessee university to pay $1.9 million to professor fired over Charlie Kirk comments," June 30, 2026.
- Fox News, "Tennessee professor fired over Charlie Kirk post reinstated, reportedly receives large financial settlement," January 7, 2026.
- Fortune, "Tennessee theater professor reinstated, with $500,000 settlement, after losing his job over a Charlie Kirk-related social media post," January 9, 2026.