ACLU Lawsuit Challenges Retaliatory Expulsion Of Student Under Unconstitutional Disciplinary Policy

Just four days after that earlier case had been resolved, the child, who was a freshman at Olive Branch High School and is indentified in the lawsuit by his initials, A.S., was targeted for nothing more than quietly singing to himself while sitting in the bleachers during an assembly and bopping his head and bumping his fists to the beat. Officials claimed his behavior constituted gang activity in violation of the district's disciplinary policy.  

"To expel a high school freshman from school simply because he was singing to himself during an assembly is patently absurd," said Kristy Bennett, Legal Director for the ACLU of Mississippi. "A.S. has never been involved in gang activity and school officials never claimed that he was associated in any gang, disrupting any other students or interfering with any school activities. Rather, it is clear that A.S.'s expulsion was motivated by his involvement in the previous lawsuit." 

Today's lawsuit is the third federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU against school and police officials in DeSoto County since last April

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