North Carolina high school sued for suspending teen who used term “illegal alien.”

US News

From Megan Palin

A 16-year-old North Carolina student has sued his high school for suspending him after he used the term “illegal aliens” in an assignment question.

Christian McGhee, who received a three-day suspension last month for using the phrase at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, has accused the school of violating his First Amendment rights in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court.

“Aside from the obvious fact that his words had nothing to do with race, his speech was protected by the First Amendment: He asked his teacher a question that was factual and non-threatening, and the officers could not reasonably predict that his question would have a significant impact on school disruption,” the lawsuit said.

“His question did not cause any significant disruption at school.”

According to the lawsuit, the incident occurred on April 9 when a teacher gave her son an assignment that included the word “alien” and asked Christian, “Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?”

A Hispanic student in Christian’s class reportedly “joked” that he was going to “kick Christian’s ass,” at which point the teacher brought the matter to the assistant principal, according to the lawsuit.

Eventually, his words were deemed offensive and disrespectful to his classmates, and he was suspended.

“The school punished CM with three days of expulsion for his question – a punishment the administration described as ‘harsh,'” the lawsuit says. “In imposing this punishment for his comment, the school bluntly concluded that CM’s question was ‘racially insensitive’ and a ‘racially motivated comment that disrupts instruction.’

According to the complaint, the school had no legal justification for harsh punishment
the student.

The teen’s mother, Leah McGhee, said the lawsuit was filed against the North Carolina school because it indirectly accused her son of being a racist and she didn’t want it to hurt his chances of getting into colleges.

“This label, so unfairly placed on his record, will hinder him,” she told NewsNation.

The suspension could also impact the student-athlete’s prospects for a college athletic scholarship, the Carolina Journal reported

“As a result of his question, our son was punished and suspended from school for THREE days for ‘racism,'” McGhee wrote in an email describing the incident.

“He is devastated and concerned that the racism label on his school report could harm his future goal of receiving an athletics scholarship. We fear he will fall behind in his classes because he is absent for three consecutive days,” she added in the message shared with the outlet.

McGhee said she hired a lawyer because the assistant principal refused to remove the suspension from her son’s record.

TikTok’s popular X account Libs weighed in on the issue, saying Christian’s record could be “damaged” by the furor over political correctness.

“Please support this student by helping raise awareness of his story!” the conservative account wrote in the post, which has received more than 4 million views.

Among those who responded was X owner Elon Musk, who wrote: “This is absurd.”

Conservative Ian Miles Chong called it “crazy.”

“How do you get suspended for using the term ‘illegal alien?’” he asked.

TikTok’s Libs added: “Hopefully North Carolina officials can intervene and ensure his record is not tarnished in any way because he is trying to secure an athletic scholarship to college.”

“He should not be persecuted for using the correct term just because the left is trying to change our entire language,” the report added.

A Central Davidson High School employee told Newsweek that they could not comment on a specific student due to federal safeguards.

“Please know that Davidson County Schools leadership takes all disciplinary incidents seriously and thoroughly investigates each one,” the representative told the Journal. “Any breach of the Code of Conduct will be dealt with appropriately by the administrators.”

The student handbook states that “schools may restrict a student’s right to free speech if the speech is obscene, offensive, promotes illegal drug use, or could reasonably be expected to significantly disrupt school life,” the Carolina Journal reported.