“LGBTQ Chappaqua student sues over suspension after off-campus use of anti-gay slurs in rap”

He uses bad language and gets suspended? Schools would be pretty empty if they suspended everyone who uses bad language while singing a rap song. This is so absurd. The school will lose.

A junior at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua has sued the school district over its decision to issue him a three-day suspension for his use of an anti-gay slur in rap music recorded off campus, arguing that the school's sanction violated his First Amendment rights.

The 17-year-old student, who says he is a member of the LGBTQ community, "occasionally freestyles rap lyrics with his friends." He devised the lyrics to his composition at a friend's house one night in 2022.

His freestyle rap contained the words "f***ot" and "twink," which the lawsuit defines as “a gay man who is young, slim, and looks like a boy," citing the Cambridge Dictionary.

After the friend posted their rap on SoundCloud, apparently without the student's knowledge, Horace Greeley received two anonymous complaints. …

In his lawsuit, the student argues that his use of the slur was ironic and was meant to "reclaim a word that has been used as a slur against him and the LGBTQ community in general."

Further, the tawdry themes in the freestyle rap were "intentionally over-the top parodies of rap music’s obsession with violence, crime, and sexuality."

The lawsuit additionally invokes a new legal precedent granting greater free speech protections to student conduct off-campus. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. that schools have a considerably narrower interest in regulating student speech that occurs off-campus.

There's a bit more if you hit the link.

 


Comments

One response to ““LGBTQ Chappaqua student sues over suspension after off-campus use of anti-gay slurs in rap””

  1. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    The beat of the drum of the falsely altruistic oppressor-culture is so singular and severe that even when a gay individual fails to march along and ‘play the game‘ properly simply by exercising self-expression through the poetic craft of rap, that individual falls into the crosshairs and has to take formal legal action to defend his rights.

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