A North Carolina high school student was suspended for three days for using the term “illegal alien” in a classroom discussion.
According to the student’s mother, he had asked his English teacher if the vocabulary word “alien” referred to space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards.
“Because of his question, our son was disciplined and given THREE days OUT of school suspension for ‘racism,’” mother Leah McGhee wrote.
“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.”
Another student took offense and threatened to fight him, leading to the assistant principal deeming the term offensive to Hispanic students and punishing the student.
The family argued the term is commonly used in federal code and news broadcasts, and that this could have been a teachable moment rather than resulting in suspension.
McGhee’s son said, “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.”
“It is a term used as federal code, and it is a term that is heard frequently on many news broadcasts,” Leah 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 school declined to comment on the specific incident.
