LGBTQ Chappaqua student sues over suspension after off-campus use of anti-gay slurs in rap
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. The student, whom The Journal News/lohud is not identifying, was then reprimanded with a three-day suspension for violating the school district's policy against hate speech, according to the student's lawsuit, which was filed in federal court Monday. Administrators punished him for his use of those two words in the rap song, which they identified as hateful, the lawsuit said.
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.
Bennett Gershman, a constitutional law professor at Pace University's Elisabeth Haub School of Law, said he was "skeptical" of Horace Greeley's move to discipline the student, given the guardrails laid out in the Mahanoy case.
"I think the school goes beyond its authority to stop students from engaging in this type of speech-related activity when there is no clear connection between their communications and anything related to a special need of the school," he said. "The school really has no place here unless it directly affects academics in school or individuals in school."
The student argues that without reversal of the suspension, his forthcoming college applications will be weighed down by disclosure of the discipline.
An email to Chappaqua Superintendent Christine Ackerman seeking comment was not immediately returned. The student is being represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a prominent free-speech advocacy organization.
Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal News and the USA Today Network New York. You can send him an email at astockler@lohud.com. Reach him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: LGBTQ Greeley student sues over suspension for slurs in off-campus rap
