A federal judge signed an order Tuesday officially settling the legal dispute between the Davidson County school board and a former student suspended over his use of the words “illegal alien” in class.
US District Judge Thomas Schroeder’s order confirmed that the settlement includes a public apology to Christian McGhee and a $20,000 payment to his family.
Schroeder had announced in court on July 1 that he had accepted terms of the settlement for McGhee, identified as C.M. in court records.
“The proposed revised settlement agreement provides C.M. a public apology from the Davidson County Board of Education for a ‘mischaracterization of racial bias arising from [C.M.]’s comments,’ correction of C.M.’s school records, the Board’s ‘acknowledge[ment] [of] the inappropriate response to this matter by a former member,’ and monetary compensation of $20,000,” Schroeder wrote. “In exchange, Plaintiff has agreed to release any and all claims against the Defendants, and the parties have agreed to pay their own attorneys’ fees and costs.”
“Although the parties initially moved to seal the revised settlement agreement, they have since withdrawn any request to seal any version of their settlement,” Schroeder explained.
Schroeder agreed with McGhee’s parents that the settlement “is fair, reasonable, and in the best interests” of their son, the judge wrote.
McGhee was suspended in April 2024 after referencing “illegal aliens” during a high school class discussion. 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?”
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.
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.”
Christian’s mother, Leah McGhee, told Carolina Journal earlier this month that the ordeal forced the 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 prepared 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 2023-24 legislative session, both chambers passed House Bill 207, Discipline Changes, that would allow students to appeal short-term suspensions.
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 K-12 curriculum in this country has been infected with some of the worst indoctrination in history.
Education has taken a back seat to pronouns, LGBT propaganda, ‘gender identity”, pedophilia, pandering to illegals, and unhinged teachers using their classrooms to push leftwing agenda.
Autumn Gonzalez, an Oregon High School teacher, describes white kids as “predators” , “not intelligent”, “racist, “dumb” and a variety of other bigoted comments.
Boston Public Schools cancelled advanced classes for high performing students because of “racial inequalities”.
A Sacramento high school teacher wanted Shakespeare removed from the curriculum because the subject matter ‘didn’t speak to ethnically diverse students’. Evidently, Ebonics, vulgar rap lyrics, and “race-based” teaching are the new norm.
Instead of reading, writing, and arithmetic, students are subjected to grooming, sexualization, and tranny restrooms.
The State knows how to raise your children better than you. They’ve even said it out loud.
During the Biden regime, the FBI targeted parents who fought against the CRT indoctrination of their kids. Standing up to corrupt school boards and objecting to the racist indoctrination of kids resulted in getting labeled as a “domestic terrorist”.
A Marxist middle school teacher in Maryland bragged about “indoctrinating” her students, called for an urgent fight against capitalism while adding, “Revolutions involve violence.”
The Oregon Department of Education has asked white students to show how their math is a form of “white supremacy”. Being able to handle basic math is a “white thing”.
Will Rogers Middle School English Teacher Tyler Wrynn, admits to indoctrinating children against the parents’ will with the end goal of overthrowing the American system of government.
California High School teacher Gabriel Gipe says: “I have an ANTIFA FLAG on my[classroom] wall” “I have 180 DAYS to turn them into REVOLUTIONARIES”. ‘There’s a reason why these kids [GenZ] are becoming FURTHER LEFT’.
A California pre-school teacher, William “Willy” Villalpando, wants to teach children as young as 3 months about “queerness” and sexuality.
Another California teacher, Danielle Serio, compares exposing kids to drag shows to Shakespeare.
The the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin defended exposing their students to library books that illustrate anal sex, sex between minors, and gay sex.
Pushing porn on kids started during the Obama regime. His “Safe Schools Czar”, Kevin Jennings, created an entire curriculum based on gay adult sex acts for grade school kids.
New York City planned to incorporate sexual positions, porn stars, and bestiality as classroom instruction for sex education.
Minnesota Highland Park Middle School teacher Mandi Jung, frequently posts videos on TikTok espousing anti-capitalist and anarchist philosophies and uses these in classroom instruction.
A Loudoun County school board member, Beth Barts, spearheaded the effort of targeting parents who disagreed with the board’s actions by compiling a list of dissidents, harassing them, and ‘publicly exposing them’.
A parent who who spoke out against CRT was placed on a ‘hit list’ by his leftwing activist neighbors.
These policies start at the top. Eliminating a bloated, venal waste of taxpayer dollars is going to improve the learning environment. Parents are fighting back, but they need to take it a step further.
Get rid of school boards that promote that shit. Take your children out of those schools.