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New audio and screenshots from administrators and school board members responsible for suspending 16-year-old student Christian McGhee for using the term “illegal alien” was released on Monday.
The Liberty Justice Center filed a preliminary injunction Tuesday requesting that a three-day suspension be expunged from McGhee’s record as its lawsuit continued. McGhee and his family are currently suing the Davidson County School Board over what they consider a harsh punishment for an innocent question.
The injunction included new evidence, including audio recordings of an administrator explaining the rationale behind the three-day suspension as being otherwise “unfair” to students who served the suspension “for saying the N-word.”
16-year-old Christian McGhee was suspended in April for using the term illegal alien in class. (Fox & Friends screengrab)
“He swears to me he wasn’t trying to be intentionally rude by asking that, so I talked to him about asking that question by saying ‘illegal alien’ verses ‘those people that need a green card.’ There’s respectful ways of asking that question and there are very disrespectful ways of asking that question,” the administrator said.
He added, “I agree that three days out of school is harsh, but it’s a line we drew in August and even though it hurt to give him that because I didn’t want to go there…but we decided that in August. And if I don’t give him that, then I’m being unfair to the 15 other kids that have served that up until now for saying the N-word or anything else under the sun that’s racially charged that creates a disruption in the classroom.”
In April, Christian McGhee was suspended for three days after asking a teacher whether her reference to the word “aliens” referred to “space aliens, or illegal aliens who need green cards.” After a student allegedly threatened to “kick his a–” for using the term, Christian was referred to the assistant principal who concluded it was a “racially motivated comment which disrupts class.”
In the audio, the administrator explained that the other student later laughed off the comment, but the punishment still needed to remain in force.
An administrator from the school insisted that the words “illegal alien” were serious despite students taking no offense to the term. (iStock)
“[H]e thought it was funny or at least he laughed about it and said, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal,’ and in the hallway, when I was talking to both boys and Miss Hill, said ‘Those are just words. It’s not a big deal right?’ and I said, ‘No, sir, those words do make a big deal out of this the way they were said and their meaning,’” the administrator said.
The injunction also included screenshots of messages between school board member Ashley Carroll and community leaders where she lambasted Christian and his mother Leah for pushing back on the suspension.
“Would you beat a kids [sic] a– who was making antisemitism comments,” one of Carroll’s messages to a community leader who is Jewish read.
She added, “It’s a 3 day suspension. It’s not the end of the world.”
Carroll also shared Leah’s mugshot from an old arrest.
“Here’s the mom’s record if you want to know what kind of person you are dealing with. Didn’t you work hard to get drug dealers off the streets?” Carroll wrote to a former law enforcement officer.
NORTH CAROLINA STUDENT SUES SCHOOL BOARD AFTER SUSPENSION FOR USING THE TERM ‘ILLEGAL ALIEN’
School board members attempted to smear Christian McGee’s mother Leah over her questioning the suspension. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images/Brian A. Jackson/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Fox News Digital reached out to the Davidson County School Board for comment but has yet to receive a response.
In a press release, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center Buck Dougherty said, “The Davidson County School Board has not only invented a racial incident out of thin air, but then gone on to violate a student’s rights to free speech and due process to punish him for that invented incident.”He added, “What we have here is an administration that refuses to admit its wrongdoing, and a kid caught in the crossfire. We are proud to stand with Christian and his family, and urge the court to order the removal of this wrongful suspension from Christian’s record.”
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Education Freedom Attorney Dean McGee, who is representing the McGhee family, told Fox News Digital, “We think the preliminary injunction will be granted which will clear our client’s record as the case proceeds.”
Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.
