Student posted memes of principal — then got suspended in Tennessee, lawsuit says
A high school student is fighting back in federal court after he posted online photos poking fun at his principal’s serious demeanor and was suspended in Tennessee, according to his attorneys.
At the beginning of the student’s junior year at Tullahoma High School, his band teacher escorted him to the front office, where he was questioned about three photos he shared to Instagram of his principal, Jason Quick, in August 2022, a federal lawsuit filed July 19 says.
The images of Quick were intended as satirical memes posted outside of school grounds to joke about his “school administrator he perceived as humorless,” according to a July 19 news release from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit civil liberties group representing the student.
One image showed Quick holding a box of vegetables with text saying “my brotha” and “on god,” another showed him in a dress with a cat filter over his face, and the third photo showed Quick with a cartoon bird clinging to him with the text “nooo Jason don’t leave me,” the lawsuit shows.
After Quick and Assistant Principal Derrick Crutchfield questioned the student over the memes, he was initially suspended for five days — then the suspension was reduced to three days, a complaint says.
The student, who is now 17 and a rising senior, accuses Quick of “defying” the First Amendment’s freedom of speech protections by suspending him over the images. He’s suing him, Tullahoma City Schools and Crutchfield, according to the complaint, which says Quick left his position as principal in late June.
McClatchy News contacted the Tullahoma City Schools Superintendent Catherine Stephens for comment on July 20 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
“If a student’s off-campus speech does not disrupt school, it is none of the school’s business,” FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick told McClatchy News in emailed statements on July 20. “The First Amendment prohibits the government from playing favorites between different views. A school cannot allow students to post content praising their teachers and administrators but censor satire and criticism.”
Student suspended as a matter of school policy
Quick is accused of relying on Tullahoma High School policy to suspend the student, identified only as “I.P.” in the complaint.
The high school’s current student and parent handbook says students who share photos or images to embarrass, demean or discredit the reputation of another student or staff member — or photos that result in “embarrassment, demeaning or discrediting” — may face suspension or expulsion from the principal.
The same goes for shared photos or videos that disrupt “the educational process,” according to the handbook.
According to the lawsuit, the 2022-2023 student parent handbook — the one in place during the student’s suspension — also banned social media activity that was “unbecoming of a Wildcat,” the complaint says.
“Administrators cannot wield vague social media policies to punish nondisruptive, off-campus satire,” FIRE attorney Harrison Rosenthal said in a statement.
The lawsuit cites a 2021 Supreme Court decision in which justices ruled Mahanoy Area High School in Pennsylvania violated the First Amendment when a student was suspended from the cheerleading team for a year over her social media posts containing vulgar language.
The images she shared to Snapchat displayed her frustration with the school and were posted outside school grounds, according to the Supreme Court.
“Courts must be more skeptical of a school’s efforts to regulate off-campus speech, for doing so may mean the student cannot engage in that kind of speech at all,” the court wrote.
The lawsuit involving the Tennessee student argues his suspension has resulted in ongoing injuries — as it is on his school record and could affect his college admissions and potential to receive scholarships.
The student demands a trial by jury and asks the court to grant relief, including declaring the school district’s social media policy and his suspension as unconstitutional.
The suit also asks the court to expunge the suspension and award damages.
Tullahoma is about 75 miles southeast of Nashville.
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