Student vindicated after her school apologizes for erasing her tribute to Charlie Kirk

A Christian high school student who honored Charlie Kirk with a Bible verse on a boulder used to share messages on campus has been officially exonerated after a legal battle over free speech and religious expression, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) announced in a press release June 15.

The case

ADF represented the Stout family in the lawsuit, which was filed Dec. 8 in the Western District of North Carolina. 

Under the settlement, the school board agreed to implement a new student speech policy, publicly clear the student of wrongdoing, express regret over her experience, and pay $95,000 in attorneys' fees and related costs, the release said.

According to WSOC-TV, ABC’s affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina, ADF Senior Legal Counsel Travis Barham said that the day after Gabby Stout, who will be a senior this fall at Charlotte‑Mecklenburg Schools’ (CMS) Ardrey Kell High School, painted on the spirit rock in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination in September 2025, the school accused her – in a community-wide email – of vandalism and violating the student code of conduct.

WBTV reported in 2025 that three students painted the rock after Kirk’s death. According to the news outlet, school district officials also asked law enforcement to conduct a criminal investigation but then said weeks later that the students’ action was not vandalism and no criminal investigation had occurred.

According to the complaint, Stout called the school office before painting the rock and was told there was no fee and that a tribute to Charlie Kirk "would be very nice.” The complaint also said that students had previously used the boulder to promote causes ranging from Black Lives Matter to the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers, and that Stout “had never heard of any student being accused of vandalizing the spirit rock simply for painting a message on it.”

Stout and two friends painted the boulder with a heart, an American flag, the message “Freedom 1776,” “Live Like Kirk—John 11:25” and their first names on Sept. 13, the complaint said. They also placed flowers in a vase at the boulder’s base. By the following day, the rock had been painted over and was displaying other messages, including “Be kind,” and “You are enough,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit also challenged a subsequent policy that explicitly prohibited religious and political messages on the campus display area. 

“A few days later, school officials unveiled a now-superseded speech code that only allowed ‘positive school spirit’ and messages that ‘uphold the inclusive values of our school community,’ allowing the officials to subjectively decide what speech is ‘positive,’” the release said. “It also explicitly banned students from expressing religious messages on the rock. When the officials formally concluded that the student, her parents, and her friends had not committed vandalism, they quietly closed the investigation with no apology and then claimed that they never accused or investigated her of anything.”

The complaint also accused school officials of violating Stout’s constitutional rights to free speech and due process and discriminating when they allowed only certain messages on the boulder, while prohibiting others. The first school day after painting the rock, Stout was told to leave class, write an official statement describing what she did and show district officials her phone logs, the complaint added. School officials did not receive permission from Stout’s parents to do that or inform her or her parents about their right to remain silent and to contact an attorney, according to the release.

"School officials should never censor, punish, or shame a student simply for sharing her views,” Barham said in the release. 

Barham said school officials should have learned long ago that they cannot favor some viewpoints while suppressing others.

“It is long past time for school officials to learn that they cannot promote student viewpoints they like while punishing students whose views they dislike,” he said.

New policies

In a June 9 press release updated June 15, the school board announced that it had approved two new policies to provide clearer guidance for leadership. In addition to creating a new Office of Legal, Compliance, and Advocacy to support the board’s and the district’s legal and policy strategy, the board adopted a new student free speech policy. 

“The policy committee along with our legal department are confident we have a policy that provides clarity and guidance for each of our school leaders that allows students to exercise their first amendment rights while minimizing incidents that could cause disruption,” board Vice Chair Gregory “Dee” Rankin said in the release. “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.”

According to the release, the board told the community on Oct. 11, 2025, that the students’ painting of the rock did not violate policies that were in place at the time.

“It was not an act of vandalism, and the school did not report the incident to law enforcement,” the release said. “The Board regrets that the student had this experience.”