Did you ever see an old clip of the brilliant comedian George Carlin doing his "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" comedy bit? First performed in 1972, Carlin was actually arrested after that performance for uttering words that weren't allowed to be said in public.
Today, a lot of those words can be uttered in a classroom. But it's apparently illegal to say the term "illegal alien" in a classroom as Leah McGhee's high school son Christian found out.
The North Carolina kid was given an assignment by his English teacher to write about the word "alien." Christian McGhee asked the teacher for clarification. Was it a "space alien" or an "illegal alien without green cards"?
One of the kids in Christian's class took offense to using the term "illegal aliens," and the school administration agreed. Christian was suspended for three days.
For sheer idiocy, this tops the list. The kid was asking a question about an assignment. He wasn't disparaging anyone or singling out any ethnic group.
The Liberty Justice Center took the case.
"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," Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center Buck Dougherty said in a statement. "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."
It's like using the wrong pronoun. We're going to have our kids walking on eggshells at school, terrified they're going to say the wrong word or unintentionally offend someone.
According to the attorneys, Christian was prohibited from taking part in a track meet and faced bullying and threats at his school. His parents eventually unenrolled him, and he is completing his semester in a homeschooling program.
Notably, the lawsuit says, the student who allegedly took offense to Christian’s question clarified that he was not actually upset or offended by the term. The lawsuit also cited, "a School administrator’s assertion that harsh punishment was necessary to avoid being ‘unfair’ to students who received the same punishment ‘for saying the N word’—a preposterous comparison."
Anyone who takes offense at a term the United States government used for 250 years to describe a noncitizen who entered the country without permission needs an intervention. Indeed, the idea that it's suddenly racist to use the term does violence to the English language.
You can't go changing the definition of a word based on politics. The term "illegal alien" perfectly describes a noncitizen entering the country without permission. The only people who want to change it are those who want to obscure the issue that the words reveal.
"School officials have effectively fabricated a racial incident out of thin air and branded our client as a racist without even giving him an opportunity to appeal. Fortunately, young people do not shed their First Amendment rights at school, and we look forward to vindicating Christian’s rights here," educational freedom attorney at the Liberty Justice Center Dean McGee said.
The lawsuit is calling for the school board to reverse and remove the suspension, along with the claim that he used "racially" motivated language in class, from his record. The family is also seeking a public apology and monetary damages to be determined at the trial.
In a comment via the Liberty Justice Center, Leah McGhee said, "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."
That's typical of schools that never apologize for anything. The young man who was suspended for nibbling his pop tart into the shape of a gun and was suspended for two days settled his case after three years.
Schools never admit they're wrong and never, ever say they're sorry.
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