McGhee family files suit against Davidson County School Board, requesting removals
Tension swells as a Central Davidson area family filed suit against the Davidson County School Board on Tuesday.
The Liberty Justice Center is suing the school board on behalf of Christian McGhee and his family for what they claim as violating his rights to free speech, education and due process. According to his lawyers, "The student asked his teacher, "like, space aliens or aliens without green cards?"
The term “Illegal Alien” has been deemed as a racial slur.
“Since a person cannot technically be illegal, critics argue the term should be dropped, even when immigrants’ actions are legally unsanctioned. The term is increasingly characterized as a racial slur, especially when it is used to dehumanize individual people,” Smithsonian.com writes.
Fox News, NEWSMAX, Daily Mail, New York Post, Former President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and a host of other high profiles have shared the McGhee’s concerns.
Many view the change in language as taking a political “side”. Under new government guidelines, “unaccompanied alien children” are referred to as “unaccompanied noncitizen children,” according to adminstration memos.
Employees are also directed to describe the “assimilation” of refugees and immigrants as “civic integration.”
The guidance requires employees to use "undocumented noncitizen" or "undocumented individual." According to school officials, the words were deemed inappropriate in this student's case and allegedly caused disruption with other students. The McGhee family disputes this claim and says there was no disruption in the classroom.
Parent Leah McGhee noted in her public statements, "This is not racism." She also expressed concern that racism should be addressed. "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. It appears that this administration would rather destroy its own reputation and the reputation of my son rather than admit they made a mistake."
Leah McGhee addressed the board on Tuesday stating that while board members declined to return her requests she feels as though she was unfairly targeted on social media.
Leah McGhee also called for removing two school board members who allegedly asked community members to promote a previous criminal conviction.
Her words about a past conviction can be seen here. The Davidson County School Board and attorney have declined to comment on an active lawsuit and the suspension.
The pending 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. We are proud to stand beside Christian and his family in challenging this egregious violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments."
Davidson County Schools declined to comment on the lawsuit or allegations against the board.
Christian has not returned to the classroom. "Having been branded as a racist by his school, Christian’s return was met with ostracism, bullying, and threats," according to Christian's attorneys. "Concerned for his safety, his parents unenrolled him and he is now completing the semester through a homeschooling program."
