SHELBY, N.C. — A student is suing her school board after she said she tried to host a game for her club that highlighted the LGBTQ+ community.
She said the board ultimately shut the game down and called it inappropriate.
Channel 9′s Ken Lemon spoke with that student’s attorney about why they are taking this issue to court.
The 17-year-old student explained that she presented the game created on PowerPoint last spring and said it has “. . . no depiction of sex, violence, illegal drug use, or anything else that could possibly justify its censorship.”
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However, the principal opposed the game at the time and then again in the fall.
According to the lawsuit, the liaison to the school board told the student’s father that the game violated the North Carolina Parents Bill of Rights law, which “. . . prohibits instruction on sexuality, sex activity, and gender identity in school.”
The family said they were then later told that “. . . it was determined that the suggested game was indecent based on community standards.”
The student’s attorney, Ivy Johnson, said keeping the game out of school violates the constitution.
“To suggest that a quiz game that acknowledges LGBTQ+ people and their contributions to society is indecent is dangerous and is a violation of this student’s First Amendment rights,” said Johnson.
Lifelong Shelby resident Mike Willis said he agreed with the school board, stating, “I don’t think it ought to be in the school.”
However, Shelby High School student Dennis McClain disagreed with that sentiment, saying he believed the student who was suing had the right to create an educational game for students in the Activism Club.
“I think they deserve to do it. It’s only a club thing. It has nothing to do with the whole school,” McClain explained.
Channel 9 has reached out to the school’s superintendent, as well as the school’s attorney for comment but has not heard back.
The suit, filed in Asheville, just seeks to follow the student to play the game on campus.
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