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A North Carolina high school has sparked backlash for suspending a student for using the term illegal alien during an English assignment.

Central Davidson High School recently suspended 16-year-old Christian McGhee for three days after he asked for clarification on the meaning of the vocabulary term “alien,” according to the Carolina Journal.

“Like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?” he asked.

His question reportedly angered some young punk in class who proceeded to threaten him, forcing the teacher to bring in the assistant principal to resolve the matter.

But instead of disciplining the punk who threatened McGhee, school officials ultimately chose to discipline and punish him for allegedly being offensive and disrespectful to Hispanics.

“I didn’t make a statement directed towards anyone; I asked a question,” the young man later recalled to the Carolina Journal. “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.”

His mother, Leah, is now concerned about his future prospects.

“Because of his question, our son was disciplined and given THREE days OUT of school suspension for ‘racism,’” she said. “He is devastated and concerned that the racism label on his school record will harm his future goal of receiving a track scholarship. We are concerned that he will fall behind in his classes due to being absent for three consecutive days.”

Fast-forward to this Tuesday, when McGhee’s mother appeared on The Pete Kaliner Show, which airs on local radio station WBT.

“She said the family had once lived in England, and Christian mentioned how people from that country also need green cards to reside in the U.S.,” according to Newsweek. “McGhee [also] said she and her husband met with the school’s assistant principal and told him ‘illegal alien’ is a term their son can look up in the dictionary.”

“It is a term used as federal code, and it is a term that is heard frequently on many news broadcasts,” she said. “I feel that if this was handled properly in the classroom, it could have easily been used as a teachable moment for everyone.”

The case has caught the attention of state Sen. Steve Jarvis, a Republican who contacted the school district’s superintendent to inform them of the matter.

“Jarvis [said] that while he informed top officials of the issue and urged officials to look for the best outcome, he did not take a stance on what they should do because he wasn’t there to understand all sides of the story,” according to the Journal.

“I do not see that that would be an offensive statement, just in getting clarification,” Jarvis said. “But there again, I don’t know. I don’t know the situation of this particular incident.”

It’s not clear why he’s being so mealy-mouthed about this. Other Republicans on X are meanwhile furious over what happened to McGhee.

Look:

Vivek Saxena
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