Christian McGhee, who received a three-day suspension for using the phrase last month at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, has accused the school of violating his First Amendment rights in the lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday.
"Aside from the obvious fact that his words had nothing to do with race, his speech was protected under the First Amendment: he asked his teacher a question that was factual and nonthreatening, and officials could not have reasonably forecast that his question would cause substantial School disruption," the suit said.
"Nor did his question actually cause substantial School disruption."
According to the lawsuit, the incident occurred on April 9 when a teacher gave Christian an assignment that used the word "alien," and he asked, "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 a-," so the teacher took the matter to the assistant principal, per the suit.
Eventually, his words were deemed to be offensive and disrespectful to his classmates, so he was suspended.
"The School punished C.M. for his question with three days out-of-school suspension — a punishment described by the administration as 'harsh,'" the suit states. "In issuing that punishment for his comment, the School baldly concluded that C.M.'s question was 'racially insensitive' and a 'racially motivated comment which disrupts class.'"
According to the complaint, the school had no legal justification for harshly punishing 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 doesn't want that to affect his chances of being accepted into colleges.
"This label that was so unfairly placed on his record is going to hinder him," she told NewsNation.
The suspension may also affect the student-athlete's prospects of securing a college sports scholarship, the Carolina Journal reported
"Because of his question, our son was disciplined and given THREE days OUT of school suspension for 'racism,'" McGhee wrote in an email describing the incident.
"He is devastated and concerned that the racism label on his school record will harm his future goal of receiving a track scholarship. We are concerned that he will fall behind in his classes due to being absent for three consecutive days," she added in the message, which was shared with the outlet.
McGhee said she hired an attorney because the assistant principal refused to remove the suspension from her son's record.
The popular X account Libs of TikTok weighed in on the issue by saying Christian's record could be "damaged" by the brouhaha over political correctness.
Leah McGhee said she doesn't want this to affect his chances of being accepted into colleges. Facebook
"Please support this based student by helping to raise awareness to his story!" the conservative account wrote in the post, which has received more than 4 million views.
Among those to respond was X owner Elon Musk, who wrote: "This is absurd."
Conservative personality Ian Miles Chong called it "insane."
"How does one get suspended for using the term illegal alien?" he asked.
Libs of TikTok added:
"Hopefully North Carolina officials can step in and ensure his record isn't tarnished in any way because he's trying to secure an athletic scholarship for college.A staffer at Central Davidson High School told Newsweek that they could not comment about a specific student due to federal protections.
"He should not be persecuted for using the correct term just because the left is trying to change our entire language," the account added.
"Please know that Davidson County Schools administrators take all discipline incidents seriously and investigate each one thoroughly," the rep told the mag. "Any violation of the code of conduct is handled appropriately by administrators."
The student handbook says that "schools may place restrictions on a student's right to free speech when the speech is obscene, abusive, promoting illegal drug use, or is reasonably expected to cause a substantial disruption to the school day," the Carolina Journal reported.
Reader Comments
What about violation by the school staff?