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A Las Vegas school district is being sued for alleged First Amendment violations after it expelled a student who placed pro-law enforcement signs on campus.
The complaint, first reported by The Las Vegas Review-Journal, was filed in the U.S. District Court for Nevada on May 14. It alleges N.C., a minor, was disciplined after he placed six pro-law enforcement emblems around East Career and Technical Academy in January, one day after students walked out of class to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The emblems allegedly included the school’s Titans logo with the words “ICE Immigration Enforcement,” “Border Security Academy Deportation Force,” and “Titans ICE.”
The complaint was filed on behalf of N.C. by his father, George Crossman, and names the Clark County School District, East Career and Technical Academy, Superintendent Jhone Ebert, East Career and Technical Academy Principal Natasha LeRutte and Assistant Principal Thomas Smith as defendants.
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School administrators allegedly removed the 2-by-2-inch emblems before the first bell. N.C. was questioned and suspended the following day before later receiving a limited expulsion, according to the complaint.
The student decided to place the emblems supporting ICE to express his views after his peers across the Clark County School District participated in an anti-ICE walkout on Jan. 21. The complaint alleges that the district and school officials named as defendants in the lawsuit did not stop or punish students for participating in the walkout, but instead “facilitated” the demonstration.
After taking down N.C.’s pro-ICE emblems, school administrators searched his Chromebook and found searches around Martin Luther King Jr. Day that included “Dark Secrets of Martin Luther King” “The Martin Luther King Assassination,” “James Earl Ray,” and “Tough ICE pictures.”
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Assistant Principal Thomas Smith allegedly “determined these searches to be a racist threat,” and N.C. was called into his office for a meeting, where he allegedly compared N.C.’s actions to someone putting up a poster that said, “Let’s go get whitey.”
The meeting concluded with Smith allegedly determining that N.C. was racist and that his motivations were racist, according to the complaint, and he was suspended immediately. School officials recommended a limited expulsion for a “racially motivated incident,” according to the complaint, and that expulsion was upheld before an Expulsion Hearing Panel and Expulsion Review Board.
In a private meeting between Smith, N.C. and his father, George Crossman, Smith allegedly explained that the student’s actions supporting ICE were considered racist “because the majority of the school is Hispanic” and the school official compared the emblems to a “burning cross.”
“Characterization of N.C.’s conduct as ‘racially motivated’ was a pretext,” the complaint says. “The true basis for Defendants’ decision was their personal, political, and ideological disagreement with the viewpoint expressed by the Pro-ICE Emblems.”
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The complaint claims school officials violated N.C.’s First Amendment rights and retaliated against him for engaging in protected speech. It requests a jury trial, damages in excess of $15,000 and for N.C.’s expulsion to be rescinded, and he be restored to good standing.
The Clark County School District said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “CCSD recognizes and honors our students’ First Amendment rights to lawful advocacy and expression on causes important to them. However, the District does not comment on pending litigation.”
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LeRutte and Smith did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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