Teen Sues After Being Suspended Over 'Playful' Instagram Memes About Principal
A 17-year-old Tennessee high school student is suing his school district and administrators after he was suspended for creating and posting satirical memes directed at his principal on social media.
According to the federal lawsuit filed on July 19, the unnamed student, who is set to begin his senior year at Tullahoma High School, accuses the Tullahoma City School district, now-former Principal Jason Quick and Vice Principal Derrick Crutchfield of violating his First Amendment right to free speech after he was suspended for three days for posting the memes on Instagram.
Attorneys representing the school district and administrators did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
“This case is about a thin-skinned high school principal defying the First Amendment and suspending a student for lampooning the principal on the student’s Instagram page even though the posts caused no disruption at school,” attorneys for the student said in their complaint.
Tullahoma High School in Tennessee.
The student posted three memes that featured Quick on his personal Instagram account in 2022, while off campus and over summer vacation, according to the lawsuit.
The satirical memes featured an image of Quick holding a box of vegetables, with the text, “like a sister but not a sister <33,” an altered image of Quick in a dress with cat ears and whiskers, and one with his face placed on a video game character being held by a cartoon bird.
“The student intended the images to be tongue-in-cheek commentary, gently ribbing a school administrator he perceived as humorless,” Conor Fitzpatrick, the lead attorney representing the student, said in a statement.
The memes that led to a suspension, according to the student's lawyers.
On Aug. 10, 2022, immediately after Crutchfield told the student he would be suspended for five days, the student suffered from a panic attack and experienced sweating, shortness of breath and lost feeling in both arms, the complaint said.
The suspension was later reduced to three days after Crutchfield allegedly told the student he “reviewed” the social media post and believed it to be a more appropriate punishment.
In the statement, Fitzpatrick and other attorneys practicing with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, said the school administrators could not use vague social media policies to punish off-campus acts.
“Principal Quick suspended a student over playful memes — but he can’t suspend the First Amendment,” FIRE attorney Harrison Rosenthal said in the statement.
“As long as a student’s posts do not substantially disrupt school, what teens post on social media on their own time is between them and their parents, not the government,” Fitzpatrick added.
