‘Aliens’ student sues HS over boot

A 16-year-old North Carolina student has sued his high school for suspending him after he used the term “illegal aliens” in a question about an assignment.

Christian McGhee, who received a three-day suspension for using the phrase last month at Central Davidson HS in Lexington, accused the school of violating his First Amendment rights in the federal court suit 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 charged. “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 “joked” 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.

“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,’ ” the suit charged.

A staffer at Central Davidson HS told Newsweek that they could not comment about a specific student due to federal protections.

“Please know that Davidson County Schools administrators take all discipline incidents seriously,” the rep told the mag.