A 16-year-old student at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina, is facing a three-day suspension last week for his use of the term “illegal alien” during an English class vocabulary exercise. The incident has sparked discussions among local community members and officials.
The controversy began during a vocabulary lesson where the word “alien” was discussed. Leah McGhee, the mother of the student, reported that her son was trying to understand the context of the word and asked, “Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?” This question triggered leftists in the room.
Another student found the term offensive and reportedly threatened to fight McGhee’s son. This resulted in the teacher calling the assistant principal to address the situation. School administrators ultimately decided that the use of the term was disrespectful and offensive, particularly to Hispanic classmates, and suspended the student for three days.
This is Christian. He’s a 16-year-old student in @CDHSSPARTANS.
He was suspended for 3 days after using the term “illegal alien” in an English assignment because it’s “offensive” and “disrespectful.” Now his record could be damaged.
Please support this based student by helping… pic.twitter.com/kz9GGtKmI4
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 16, 2024
So, the boy was threatened with violence and then was suspended for asking a question.
The student defended his choice of words, stating, “I didn’t make a statement directed towards anyone; I asked a question. I wasn’t speaking of Hispanics because everyone from other countries needs green cards, and the term ‘illegal alien’ is an actual term that I hear on the news and can find in the dictionary.”
The suspension could be a serious problem for the child because the suspension oucld ruin his chances for any scholarships he was attempting to get. He is involved in school clubs, track, and cross country.
The family is now working with an attorney to challenge the suspension and remove the infraction from his record.
State Senator Steve Jarvis has also gotten involved, reaching out to the superintendent of the school district to ensure that all aspects of the incident are fairly assessed. Jarvis has not made a direct recommendation on the resolution but hopes for a fair outcome.
The case has gotten national attention.
Even, Elon Musk commented calling the suspension “absurd.”
Hopefully North Carolina officials can step in and ensure his record isn’t tarnished in any way because he’s trying to secure an athletic scholarship for college. He should not be persecuted for using the correct term just because the left is trying to change our entire language. pic.twitter.com/7JY5yQ04HB
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 16, 2024