Parents in North Carolina are taking legal action against their local school board after they suspended their 16-year-old son for using the term “illegal alien.”
As previously reported by The Gateway Pundit, Christian McGhee was suspended from Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina and also smeared as a racist after he asked a question about the word “alien” during a vocabulary exercise.
“Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?” he reportedly asked his teacher.
This question then led to a confrontation with another student, and the matter was consequently escalated to the assistant principal, who determined he had been “offensive and disrespectful” towards his Hispanic classmates, leading to his suspension.
The term “illegal alien” is the correct term used to refer to foreign citizens who have entered the U.S. illegally. Open borders oppose its usage because it emphasizes that migrants have broken the law.
Now, the Liberty Justice Center is taking up the case and suing the Davidson County Board of Education for violating his constitutional rights.
This is Christian. He’s a 16-year-old student in @CDHSSPARTANS.
He was suspended for 3 days after using the term “illegal alien” in an English assignment because it’s “offensive” and “disrespectful.” Now his record could be damaged.
Please support this based student by helping… pic.twitter.com/kz9GGtKmI4
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 16, 2024
The Center announced the lawsuit in a press release on Tuesday:
On May 7, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit against the Davidson County Board of Education on behalf of Christian McGhee, a sixteen-year-old student whose question about the word “aliens” in English class led to a harsh suspension and false accusations of racism by his own school.
On April 9, sophomore Christian McGhee raised his hand and asked his English teacher whether her reference to the word “aliens” referred to “space aliens, or illegal aliens who need green cards?” Although there was no substantial disruption to the class, the school decided to suspend Christian for three days out of school, with the administration equating his question to a vicious racial slur. Christian was also prohibited from competing in a season-defining track meet. No appeal was permitted.
Having been branded as a racist by his school, Christian’s return was met with ostracism, bullying, and threats. Concerned for his safety, his parents unenrolled him and he is now completing the semester through a homeschooling program.
The Liberty Justice Center is suing the school board on behalf of Christian and his family for violating his rights to free speech, education, and due process. The lawsuit argues that the school board had no legal justification to suspend Christian because his comment was protected speech under the First Amendment. The lawsuit also seeks to remove the suspension from Christian’s academic record.
“Even though Christian asked a factual, non-threatening question—about a word the class was discussing—the school board branded him with false accusations of racism,” said Buck Dougherty, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.
“The school has not only violated his constitutional right to free speech, but also his right to due process and his right to access education, a guaranteed right under North Carolina law,” he continued. “We are proud to stand beside Christian and his family in challenging this egregious violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
“I have raised our son to reject racism in all its forms, but it is the school, not Christian, that injected race into this incident,” added Leah McGhee, the boy’s mother. “It appears that this administration would rather destroy its own reputation and the reputation of my son rather than admit they made a mistake.”