The term “illegal alien” would be an offense worthy of suspension from a North Carolina high school if used. In an email to the Carolina Journal, Leah McGhee described an incident at Central Davidson High School in Lexington in which her 16-year-old son was suspended for three days last week during the quarter.
According to McGhee, an English teacher assigned an assignment that involved the use of vocabulary such as the word “alien.” In response, his son asked if the teacher meant “like aliens or illegal immigrants without green cards?”
Another student reportedly took offense this semester and threatened to beat McGhee’s son, forcing the teacher to contact the assistant principal. Staff members later deemed the term offensive to the Hispanic student and punished him.
“As a result of his questions, our son was disciplined and suspended from school for THREE days for ‘racism,” McGhee wrote for the Carolina Journal.
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He is devastated and fears that the racist label on his academic record will affect his future goals of receiving an athletic scholarship. We are concerned that he will be falling behind in class due to being absent for three consecutive days.
She also said that to date the school has refused to remove the suspension from her son’s records and that her family has begun working with a lawyer. In response to the suspension, McGhee’s son told the Carolina Journal, “I made no statement aimed at anyone; I asked a question.
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I’m not talking about Hispanics because everyone in other countries needs a green card, and ‘illegal alien’ is a real term that I heard on the news and was able to find in the dictionary.
“McGhee and his son later appeared on “The Pete Kaliner” Show” to add more detail to their story “It is a term used as a federal code and is a term you often hear on many news shows,” she said.
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“I think if this was handled properly in class it could easily be used as a teaching moment for everyone.” In a statement to Newsweek about the story, Central Davidson High School responded that they would not comment on any specific student.
“Please know that Davidson County Schools administrators take every disciplinary incident seriously and investigate each incident thoroughly,” the comment reads. “Any violation of the code of conduct will be handled appropriately by administrators.”
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