A federal court has approved a legal settlement between the Davidson County Board of Education and the family of Christian McGhee, a student who was suspended in April 2024 after referencing “illegal aliens” during a class discussion. The case sparked national attention, culminating in a settlement, a public apology, and the removal of a racial bias notation from the student’s academic record.
According to the Liberty Justice Center, which represented the McGhee family, Christian asked during an English class, “Do you mean space aliens or illegal aliens who need green cards?” His question came during an English class discussion.
The school suspended him for three days and added a note of “racially insensitive behavior” to his record. The Liberty Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit, arguing the school’s actions violated McGhee’s First Amendment rights.
On July 1, US District Judge Thomas David Schroeder ruled the proposed settlement was “fair, reasonable, and in the best interest of [Christian],” but has not yet issued an order in the case. The Davidson County Board of Education is expected to formally approve the settlement at its next meeting later this summer.
Dean McGee, Senior Counsel and Director of Educational Freedom at the Liberty Justice Center, called the court’s approval “a critical step towards finally vindicating Christian’s constitutional rights and clearing his record of false allegations.”
While the final agreement remains under seal has not been released publicly, an earlier agreement, showed that the board stated:
“The Board apologizes for the mischaracterization of racial bias arising from Christian’s comments and will remove any reference to race or racial bias as a motive for the comments from his educational record, which contains no other incidences of discipline related to racial bias.”
Christian’s mother, Leah McGhee, said the ordeal forced their family into a crash course on student rights.
“It’s really opened our entire family’s eyes to the fact that students aren’t really being taught their rights,” she said. “Our son learned more about his constitutional rights through Dean McGee than he ever learned from any of his teachers in high school.”
She described the case as transformative for Christian. In the weeks that followed his suspension, the media attention caught the eye of the White House. Christian received a personal letter of recommendation from President Donald Trump. Christian was also recently invited by the Faith and Freedom Foundation to tour Capitol Hill and learn more about his individual rights. Whether that has sparked his interest in activism or politics, his mother said he’s spoken of it, but time will tell.
“He did see a very kind of dark side, you know, standing on the right side of justice,” she said. “I would do everything in my power to support him, but my own private prayers I pray that that is not something he is called to right now, but I’m supportive of whatever he dreams of doing. It was it was a blessing, all of the good that’s come out of this, there’s been so much more good than there has been bad.”
As the family prepares to celebrate America’s Independence Day, the importance of their battle is not lost on the McGhees.
“Christian has learned and grown in this experience… his grandfather actually fought on the United States Intrepid in World War II… my husband was sitting there talking to him, explaining that Christian is fighting for the same rights that his great grandfather had fought for.”
“He’s really learned about how wonderful and blessed he is to be an American child,” she added.
While the legal process brought closure, Leah McGhee remains skeptical about institutional accountability.
“My hope would be yes, but to tell you the truth, I do not have much faith in the Davidson County school system,” she said.
She noted that true accountability came at the voting booth as the community rallied to Christian’s side.
“Collectively, as a community, we voted out three of those [school board] members,” she said. “That was a huge win for Davidson County in general, getting those toxic people out of office and replacing them with people who truly do care about the students in this town.”
Leah also pointed to real policy change resulting from their efforts. In the 2023-2024 legislative session both chambers passed HB 207 Discipline Changes that would allow students to appeal short-term suspensions. However, the bill remained in the House Rules Committee.
Still, she said the case should be a signal to others. Her hope is that Christian’s experience reminds families that constitutional rights don’t end at the schoolhouse gate.
“For people to see that you can win, you can fight back and you can win with the support of attorneys and law firms like Liberty Justice… they did every single bit of this with zero price tag attached.”
The post Davidson County student wins emotional free speech battle over classroom ‘illegal aliens’ remark first appeared on Carolina Journal.
The post Davidson County student wins emotional free speech battle over classroom ‘illegal aliens’ remark appeared first on First In Freedom Daily.
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Author: Donna King
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