A 16-year-old North Carolina student is suing his high school after he was suspended for using the term “illegal alien” in an assignment question.
Christian McGee, who was suspended for three days last month from Lexington’s Central Davidson High School for using the phrase, is accused of violating his First Amendment rights in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court. The school was accused of doing so.
“Other than the obvious fact that his words had nothing to do with race, his speech was protected by the First Amendment. However, officials could not reasonably have foreseen that his questions would cause significant “disruption at the school,” the lawsuit said.
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“Nor did his questions actually cause any significant disruption at the school.”
According to the complaint, the incident occurred on April 9, when a teacher gave Christian an assignment using the word “alien” and asked, “Is it something like an alien? Or something like an illegal alien without a green card?” It happened when I asked a question.
According to the complaint, the teacher brought the matter to the assistant principal after a Hispanic student in Christian’s class “joked” that he was going to kick Christian’s a-.
Ultimately, his words were determined to be offensive and disrespectful to his classmates, and he was suspended from school.
“In response to the CM’s questions, the school imposed a three-day suspension, which the administration described as ‘severe,'” the complaint states. “In disciplining his comments, the school blatantly concluded that the commercial’s questions were ‘racially insensitive’ and constituted ‘racially motivated comments that disrupted the class.'”
According to the lawsuit, the school had no legal basis to impose harsh punishment.
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The boy’s mother, Leah McGee, said: a lawsuit was filed That’s because a North Carolina school indirectly accused her son of being racist, and she doesn’t want it to affect her son’s chances of getting into college.
“The labels that have been so unfairly placed on his records are going to get in his way,” she said. news nation.
The suspension could also affect a student-athlete’s chances of earning a college sports scholarship, the Carolina Journal reported.
“As a result of his questions, our son was disciplined for ‘racism’ and suspended from school for three days,” McGee wrote in an email explaining the incident.
“He is devastated and is concerned that the racist label placed on his academic performance will jeopardize his future goals of receiving an athletics scholarship. I am worried that I will be late for classes because I have been absent for three days in a row,” she added in a message shared with the media.
McGee said she hired a lawyer because the assistant principal refused to remove the suspension from her son’s record.
Popular TikTok’s X account library weighed in on the issue, saying Christians’ records could be “tarnished” by the uproar over political correctness.
“Please support this student by raising awareness of his story,” the conservative account posted, which has been viewed more than 4 million times.
Those who responded included X owner Elon Musk, who wrote: “This is ridiculous.”
Conservative celebrity Ian Miles Chong called this “insane.”
“How can I get suspended if I use the term illegal alien?” he asked.
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TikTok’s Liv added, “He’s trying to get an athletic scholarship to college, so I hope the North Carolina authorities step in and make sure his record isn’t tarnished in any way.” he added.
The account added: “Just because the left is trying to change our entire language doesn’t mean we should persecute him for using the correct terminology.”
Officials at Central Davidson High School told Newsweek they could not comment on specific students due to federal protections.
“Please know that Davidson County Schools administrators take all disciplinary incidents seriously and thoroughly investigate each one,” a representative told the publication. “If the code of conduct is violated, management will take appropriate action.”
The student handbook states, “Schools may restrict a student’s right to free speech if the speech is obscene, abusive, promotes illegal drug use, or could reasonably be expected to seriously disrupt instruction.” may be established,” the Carolina Journal reported.
