District ‘mischaracterized him in a racially biased way’
A high school student in North Carolina has been awarded a $20,000 settlement along with an apology from his school district after being suspended for saying “illegal alien” in English class last year.
As noted by The Fix, the student’s class at Central Davidson High School had been instructed to use the word “alien” in a vocabulary assignment.
To get clarification, Christian McGhee asked the teacher “Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?”
An Hispanic classmate allegedly took offense at the question and threatened McGhee, which led to the teacher calling administrators for assistance.
Assistant Principal Eric Anderson ultimately deemed McGhee’s query “racially insensitive” and “disrespectful to Hispanic students.” The discipline write-up notes McGhee “made a racially insensitive comment […] about an alien ‘needing a green card.’”
The district student handbook states “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.”
McGhee’s mother Leah claimed she was unable to appeal Christian’s suspension, and despite it potentially affecting McGhee’s chances at a track scholarship, Anderson refused to expunge the suspension from his record.
McGhee and his parents sued, and just over a week ago they reached a settlement with the Davidson County Board of Education and Anderson.
According to The Carolina Journal, the board will “remove all references to racial bias in [Christian]’s school record, offer a public apology […] for mischaracterizing him in a racially biased way in his school records, and provide $20,000 in compensation.”
(The suspension actually “will remain otherwise unchanged” due to Christian’s comments causing a “classroom disruption.”)
The money award reportedly is “to help with the costs of the new private school Christian transferred to” as a result of the incident.
Also part of the settlement is a “confidential” apology offered via Zoom, presumably from the board member who had “attempted to smear [Mrs. McGhee] online, posting her substance abuse history from nearly two decades ago.”
That board member resigned in April after allegedly causing an accident while under the influence of alcohol.
MORE: Student diversity officials promise impeachment of VP who wrote ‘illegal aliens’
IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Christian and Leah McGhee; Facebook
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.