CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – The mother and father of a pupil at Ardrey Kell Excessive Faculty have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Colleges system of violating their daughter’s constitutional rights.
Their daughter was one in all three college students who painted the spirit rock at Ardrey Kell Excessive Faculty after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Faculty district officers referred to as the portray vandalism on the time and mentioned they’d contacted legislation enforcement for a legal investigation.
Weeks later, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Colleges publicly walked that message again, saying the coed had not vandalized the rock, and that there was by no means a legal investigation.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, Dec. 8 within the Western District of North Carolina, says the district’s up to date message got here after weeks of failing to answer requests from the mother and father who requested college officers a number of occasions to publicly right the file.
Representing the mother and father are attorneys affiliated with the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based group centered on conservative Christian points and a heavyweight in instances which have come earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
In a current profile of the group, the New York Occasions reported that they have been concerned in quite a few challenges earlier than the Supreme Court docket to transgender rights, abortion entry and constitution college points.
Monday’s lawsuit accuses the college district of violating the Ardrey Kell pupil’s constitutional rights to free speech and due course of. The lawsuit additionally accuses the district of discriminating towards differing viewpoints when deciding which pupil causes to help.
Telephone data accompanying the lawsuit present the daughter had contacted college officers earlier than portray the rock. The lawsuit mentioned she advised the college concerning the Charlie Kirk-related message that she and her associates deliberate to color, and was given permission by the employees member who answered the cellphone.
Within the aftermath of the portray, the lawsuit accuses Charlotte-Mecklenburg Colleges of quickly portray over the message after which issuing new steerage about what might be painted on the rock, which has featured Black Lives Matter messages up to now.
The lawsuit additionally accuses district officers of interrogating the scholars concerned and pulling their mobile phone data with out informing them of their rights. The lawsuit mentioned these actions have been a part of the “legal investigation” the college had first introduced – although officers now say that such an investigation didn’t occur.
Officers for the college district, which doesn’t usually touch upon pending litigation, couldn’t be instantly reached for a response.
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