CAMDEN — A Vineland High School security guard claims she was unjustly fired for posting a Facebook comment suggesting "another black thug" was responsible for the fatal shooting of a Philadelphia police officer earlier this month, according to a lawsuit filed today.

Mary Czaplinski, a 12-year veteran of the Vineland School District, claims school officials violated her free speech rights by firing her for a comment made on her own time, on a private Facebook page.

"Praying hard for the Philly cop shot today by another black thug," the comment read, according to the lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court. "may(be) all white people should start riots and protests and scare the hell out of them."

The comment was posted on March 5, the same day Philadelphia police officer Robert Wilson was shot trying to stop a robbery at a video game store in North Philadelphia. Wilson, 30, was in uniform and waiting to purchase a game for his 10-year-old son when he was shot, according to reports.

Wilson and his alleged assailants are black, according to the lawsuit.

"The post was meant as her comment on a significant public issue, and expressed her frustration at the racial polarization that has characterized the current national debate over police conduct," her attorney, Frank Corrado, writes in the lawsuit.

Czaplinski's Facebook page identifies her as a Vineland schools employee, the lawsuit says.

Vineland school officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The day after the Facebook comment was made, someone sent an anonymous email to Mary Gruccio, the school district's superintendent with a copy of the post, the lawsuit says.

"What type of employes (sic) do you have posting 'black thugs' comments," the email read, according to the lawsuit. "Employing racist security guards is trouble. Diversity matters regardless of race. Very troubling."

Czaplinksi was placed on administrative leave a few days after the post and was told not to report to school until further notice, the lawsuit says.

At a March 12 hearing she learned for the first time that the district intended to fire her for the March 5 post, the lawsuit says.

The same day she refused a request to retire made by a school official, it adds.

On March 13, Czaplinski was fired for "conduct unbecoming a public employee and other sufficient causes," the lawsuit says.

The termination becomes effective this Friday.

"At the time it terminated Czaplinski, the district had no basis to believe that Czaplinski's post in any way affected her job performance, her decision-making ability, her relationship with students or other staff, or the operations of the Vineland schools," Corrado writes.

The lawsuit is seeking to have the firing overturned so Czaplinski can return to her job as a security guard. And it asks that the schools "cease any harassment of, or retaliation against, Czaplinski for the exercise of her constitutional rights of free speech," the lawsuit adds.

Czaplinski is not the first New Jersey school employee to claim her free speech rights were violated after she made comments on Facebook.

In 2013, Union Township High School teacher Jenye Viki Knox sued her Board of Education for suspending her in 2011 after she made anti-gay comments on her Facebook page.

Knox's comment addressed a billboard marking Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Month, her lawsuit said.

"Why parade your unnatural immoral behaviors before the rest of us?," Knox wrote on Facebook. "I DO NOT HAVE TO TOLERATE ANYTHING OTHERS WISH TO DO. I DO HAVE TO LOVE AND SPEAK AND DO WHAT'S RIGHT!"

Thomas Zambito may be reached at tzambito@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomZambito. Find NJ.com on Facebook.