New York mom files complaint against her son’s middle school and district after he was allegedly punished for saying his belief that there are only two genders.
The mother of a middle school student in New York is taking legal action after her son was allegedly disciplined for saying that there are two genders.
According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on Friday, “A.B.,” a middle school student at East Aurora Middle School, was suspended by the school for five days in March and was told that part of the reason for the suspension was because he expressed his belief there were only two genders.
The court filing, which does not identify the mother or student, states that A.B. made this comment in November, but no disciplinary action was taken against him at the time. However, the complaint says A.B. was given a disciplinary notice in March that “vaguely” accused him of “violent conduct” and his prior statement about gender was cited as “part of the rationale for his punishment.”
A.B. did not disrupt school activities or target any specific individual with his gender remark, the filing claims.
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According to the complaint, A.B. was charged with violating the student code of conduct, which prohibits speech that “demeans” or “denigrates” others “if it presents a reasonable foreseeable risk of disruption.”
“The Defendants’ claim that A.B.’s words constituted ‘violence’ was a pretext to justify retaliation against him for expressing a viewpoint that school officials disfavored,” the complaint states.
The school and district are accused in the lawsuit of retaliating against the student’s First Amendment rights and violating his right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
The complaint claims that school officials were “motivated by a desire to retaliate” against the student’s comment, months after he expressed his views, because President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January recognizing “two sexes, male and female.”
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“So here you’ve got an educational institution that still wants to charge a kid for saying what the President of the United States has now said is the official government policy of the United States,” the mother’s lawyer, R. Anthony Rupp III, told Buffalo News.
Rupp said in the same report that the district is seeking a longer suspension for the student’s gender comment and two other comments the student made, which are not mentioned in the lawsuit.
The mother’s legal team is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and for the school officials to expunge any disciplinary record related to A.B.’s protected speech.
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The complaint was filed by an unnamed East Aurora Middle School parent, “J.S.” on behalf of her minor child, “A.B.,” and lists East Aurora Middle School Principal Matthew Brown and East Aurora Union Free School District Superintendent Brian Russ as defendants.
Brown and Russ did not return requests for comment.
The plaintiff’s attorney, R. Anthony Rupp III, did not return a request for comment.
