UPDATE:
Just after 11pm on September 10, MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee announced the Student Care and Conduct Associate Dean Laura Sosh-Lightsy was summarily fired.
McPhee posted on social media:
“An MTSU employee today offered inappropriate and callous comments on social media concerning the horrific and tragic murder of Charlie Kirk. The comments by this employee, who worked in a position of trust directly with students, were inconsistent with our values and have undermined the university’s credibility and reputation with our students, faculty, staff and the community at large. This employee has been fired effective immediately. We extend our deepest sympathies to the Kirk family.”
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U.S. Senator and Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is calling on Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) to terminate the employment of the institution’s Office of Student Care and Conduct Associate Dean, Laura Sosh-Lightsy, who posted on Facebook declaring that conservative commentator and co-founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk “spoke his fate into existence” when he was assassinated Wednesday.
Kirk died after being shot at his American Comeback Tour event held at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
In a Facebook post, Sosh-Lightsy wrote, “Looks like ol’ Charlie spoke his fate into existence. Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy.”
Assistant Dean of Students for my alma mater — Middle Tennessee State University — has some thoughts on Charlie Kirk’s assassination. pic.twitter.com/HN3HIPI24l
— Matthew Hurtt (@matthewhurtt) September 11, 2025
Sosh-Lightsy also shared a post that read, “I’m not celebrating the loss of Charlie Kirk’s life. I am celebrating the loss of his message of violence in an increasingly violent world, which is partially because of him.”
In commenting on that post, Sosh-Lightsy wrote, “Yep. Hate begets hate. Still no sympathy. You get back what you put into the world tenfold.”
She had a follow-up post moments later. pic.twitter.com/Ve9pIbqECL
— Matthew Hurtt (@matthewhurtt) September 11, 2025
Sosh-Lightsy, according to her LinkedIn profile, has been employed in various roles at MTSU for over 21 years.
“Laura…believes strongly in the importance of helping students understand their role within the community and the impact of their behavior on others,” Sosh-Lightsy’s biography reads on MTSU’s website.
Matthew Hurtt, the Director of Professional Services at the Leadership Institute who attended MTSU, shared Sosh-Lightsy’s posts on X, which prompted Blackburn (R-TN) to call for the Associate Dean’s firing.
“Charlie Kirk was an inspiration for so many young people to speak up and work towards a better country, and nowhere was that more true than our college campuses. She should be fired tomorrow,” Blackburn said.
State Representative Lee Reeves (R-Franklin), who is running in the special primary election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, also commented on Sosh-Lightsy’s remarks and called for her firing.
“Charlie Kirk was murdered for standing up for America First. The Left tried to kill President Trump. They shot at Steve Scalise and others. This is political violence, plain and simple. The Radical Left hates us—and unfortunately, we must wake up to that fact,” Reeves said.
“This is the line. I’m already working conversations and will do everything in my power to see her fired,” he added.
State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), who also attended MTSU, said he would be reaching out to MTSU, adding, “A person who has so little regard for basic decency, the value of life and then lacks the common sense to not post such vile, should NOT be in leadership at one of our universities.”
Sosh-Lightsy has shared and authored a number of political posts in recent years on her personal Facebook.
In August, Sosh-Lightsy updated her Facebook profile picture of a campaign button with the text, “Trump is the worst president since Trump.”
In the days after the 2024 general election, she wrote in a Facebook post, “Republicans expect us to believe they voted for tRump because of his policies, political and business acumen, and his profound love for the United States…not because he represents the hateful, bigoted, self-serving values they also hold but are too chicken shit to acknowledge.”
In 2022 on the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Sosh-Lightsy updated her Facebook cover photo to a picture of a wire coat hanger and shared a post of a map of the U.S. detailing where each state stood on abortion in wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling, writing, “More than happy to take a trip with any woman at any time.”
On February 17, 2021, when conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh died at 70, Sosh-Lightsy wrote in a post, “Rush Limbaugh was a horrible human being. In death, he deserves nothing other than the hate that spewed from his mouth. The world is a better place without him.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Laura Soth-Lightsy” by Laura Sosh-Lightsy.
good. these people are absolute ghouls
Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
How long has the “Democrat Party” been supporting the murder of babies???
How long have they had a place on the ballot and in Government???
America has long been deceived into believing the Devil and his disciples have “Equal Rights” with the Righteous,
When the only equal rights that exist is the punishment for accepting the Devils doctrine.
2Jo 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
So, appropriate this woman being fired. What a disgrace, what an evil person. She should look in the mirror with shame. Universities need to be purged of all faculty and administration who cannot check their partisan ideology at the front door.
Where do universities dig up these losers? Everything she has put out is exactly what she is. What a worthless human, that clearly has never contributed anything to mankind.
good. fire all these people.
This so called educator is exactly what Charlie Kirk brought to tge attention of America. She is the very example of the trash our colleges load into the minds of our youth.
We have come to realize tgat those that young people should trust to help them be successful adults are the very danger Charlie warned about.
I believe the gradual demise of our Education Institutions, our Medical Institutions, our Law Enforcement Institutions, our Justce Institutions, everything great about our country was eroded beginning with the election of Barrack Hussein Obama. He used his power to destroy everything that made America the Exceptional Country that it was created to do. He started off his administration announcing to the World that America WAS NOT A CHRITSIAN COUNTRY. He traveled around the world spewing trash about America. He created Racial Animous to divide the country.
He was created by Chicago LEFTISTS. His political coaches were Marxists.
Charlie, also from Chicago, at 18 years old, recognized that something was very wrong.
He created a movement to change the coarse of America that grew to a multi-million dollar organization.
It’s people like this “educator” that Charlie worked to get rid of out of our education institutions. She is welcome to her opinion, but maybe she is too stupid to be paid by taxpayers. She is vile. GOOD RIDDANCE.
GR: Thank you, that was so on the mark.
What a sorry excuse for a human being. I am glad to see that MTSU gave this horrible person the boot right away. This woman is a perfect example of the people who have been brainwashed into hating President Trump. This behavior is the direct result of the daily vitriol being spread by the democratic party. There is no place in a civilized world for people like her. Sadly, there are now so many deranged leftist roaming the streets that I fear we will experience more and more serious physical violence.
This person has the right to think and or believe what she likes. She has no business teaching kids in any form. Collages are (were) a place for all ideas. No longer. It is a one way street, and it is ALL liberal. A big part of the reason that people will no longer pay for the way over priced so called education is THIS. People pay for education not one way thinking.
Individuals like this aren’t fit to clean the cages at the local pound. Pray she finds God.