OAN’s Brooke Mallory
5:22 PM – Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Throughout time, it has been commonplace to not pander to the feelings of individuals who break the law. However, when it comes to illegal immigration, many tense up and feel uncomfortable labeling certain individuals by their status, or rather, lack of status, regarding citizenship.
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You might even see protester signs that read, “No human is illegal!” But, if someone who was born and bred in the U.S. were to illegally enter and live in another country while demanding citizenship, this would simply not fly, and they would be considered an illegal alien as well. It has nothing to do with skin color or country of origin.
It is about taking the correct legal steps and receiving the permission required to enter or live in any country.
Those who are concerned about the integrity of America’s borders are also particularly concerned about the growing usage of “feel good” words like “undocumented immigrant.” Erroneous and fluffy language can give the impression that breaking immigration laws is not a major concern.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a male student was recently suspended for three days for using the term “illegal alien” in class. The student is now formally suing the school district for “harsh punishment” and “false accusations of racism.”
Leah McGhee, the student’s mother, explained to reporters that an English teacher at Central Davidson High School in Lexington had assigned a vocabulary exercise in April that included the word “alien.” Her son Christian then raised his hand and inquired as to what the teacher meant.
“Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?” Christian asked.
Soon after, this question prompted the teacher to speak with the assistant principal after a different student allegedly took offense to the term and vowed to “fight” Christian. Christian was then given a three-day suspension by school administrators after they determined that his question was “disrespectful to Hispanic students.”
However, this was seen as incredibly racist by many social media users online who learned about Christian’s punishment.
“Dem teachers and administrators are so racist and close-minded that they assume illegal aliens only refer to Hispanics, LOL!” said one X (Twitter) user.
The Liberty Justice Center declared on Tuesday that it will be representing McGhee in a lawsuit against the Davidson County Board of Education following the story’s online virality.
“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.”
The attorneys also said that Christian later experienced bullying and violent threats in addition to being forbidden from participating in a track meet. After a while, his parents even dropped him from school, and he is currently finishing his semester in a homeschooling program.
The lawsuit stated that “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.”
Teachers and administrators essentially tried to compare a legally correct term, with a highly offensive racial slur.
“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,” said Dean McGee, an educational freedom attorney at the Liberty Justice Center.
The complaint demands that the school board expunge the allegation that he spoke in class with “racially” offensive words, which could affect his applications when applying to colleges. In addition, the family is requesting a public apology and unspecified monetary damages at trial.
“The phrase ‘illegal aliens’ has taken on a pejorative tone in recent years, and in response, some institutions have determined that they will cease to use it,” the Library of Congress said in an executive summary. “For example, in April 2014 the Associated Press announced that ‘illegal’ would not be used as a descriptor for any individual,” according to visaandgreencard.com
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