South Winston Salem News

A Central Davidson High School student was suspended for three days after using the term “illegal alien” in his English class to clarify the use of the word “alien” during their vocabulary lesson. 

Leah McGhee, the mother of the sixteen year old student, said her son asked the teacher to clarify the word “alien” with the question “like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?” 

Another student in the class threatened to fight McGhee for the comment, which resulted in the assistant principal being called to the classroom. The incident ended with administration determining McGhee should be suspended for three days as his comment was deemed offensive and disrespectful to any Hispanic classmates. 

Davidson County School officials could not provide any additional details on a student matter, however the school’s handbook says the school “may place restrictions on a student’s right to free speech when the speech is obscene, abusive, promoting illegal drug use, or is reasonably expected to cause a substantial disruption to the school day.”

“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 student explained to The Carolina Journal. 

The three day suspension could impact his permanent record and result in being unable to secure college scholarship or athletic scholarships, which concerns the student as he is involved in school clubs, track, and cross country at his school.