RENO, NV (RNN) - A high school suspended a student Wednesday for using profanity in a phone call to a congressman's office while demanding action on gun violence. A congressman's staffer complained to the school.
The ACLU said McQueen High School's two-day suspension of 17-year-old Noah Christensen is unconstitutional retaliation. They said students should be able to express their opinions about the government and government officials.
During a 17-minute national school walkout on Wednesday, in memory of the 17 who died in the Parkland, FL, school shooting, Christensen and dozens of his classmates called legislators to discuss what they think should be done to protect students from mass shootings.
Christensen called Rep. Mark Amodei, R-NV, to demand legislation to address gun violence.
During the call, the student dropped expletives. He admitted saying that people in Congress need to "get off their f---ing a----" in the call.
A staffer from Amodei's office called Christensen's school and complained about the conversation, calling it offensive.
Christensen also was prevented from assuming his newly elected role as class secretary/treasurer.
He said he realizes he shouldn't have cursed during the call but feels that it doesn't warrant school punishment.
"Being yelled at for calling my representative and trying to create change in the world is one of the worst feelings I've ever experienced. All I want is for this suspension to be overturned and to take my place as class secretary, so I can move on to college with my record restored. I've never even had a detention before, let alone a suspension," Christensen said.
The civil liberties group sent letters Monday to the the Washoe County School District and McQueen High School, demanding the suspension be overturned. They also sent a letter to Amodei, to remind him of the student's First Amendment rights.
"The retaliation by Congressman Amodei’s office is a betrayal of the First Amendment and of the representative process. Nothing this constituent did was illegal, and we hope Congressman Amodei would be as interested in the opinions of students as anyone who seeks to 'petition the government,'" said Tod Story, executive director of ACLU of Nevada.
Amodei told the Nevada Independent he's not planning on apologizing to the student anytime soon because his constituent services representative accurately described Christensen's call.
The staffer also reached the school's principal by chance, Amodei explained.
“He related the guy was vulgar. He didn’t ask [the school] for any specific thing or beat the kid up. He just said ‘I wanted you know that this guy was really vulgar. We had a lot of calls and nobody else was,’ and that was it,” Amodei said.
