Jan. 15—A Volcano Vista High School student is suing Albuquerque Public Schools and employees of the school, alleging they violated her free speech rights for disciplining her late last year when she spoke out against the school once they terminated her from a leadership position.
The student, a female identified as N.S., filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on Dec. 27 through her father, Bruce Sers. A hearing is scheduled on Friday before Judge Matthew L. Garcia.
Sers, whose daughter is a high school senior, names the APS Board of Education, the school’s principal, Melissa Sedillo, and George Woods, activities director for the school, in the lawsuit.
Sers’ attorney, Matthew Beck, is seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, which would prevent APS from removing the student from her position.
The lawsuit provides a timeline of events, starting Nov. 12, when N.S., then the first vice president of Volcano Vista’s student senate, got into an argument with another student outside of class. Woods, who reportedly was not present for the dispute, told the pair that their dispute needed “to be squashed.” N.S. later apologized to Woods, the complaint said.
The following day, Woods told N.S. she would be suspended from student senate activities, other than those during the school day, for the remainder of the semester, according to the complaint.
On Nov. 14, once she had left school, N.S. posted an image to Snapchat via private message to a handful of her friends, captioned: “me when i try to quit senate but get begged not to step down, and then (George) woods still ends up suspending me anyway for being ‘disrgaceful (sic)’ (expletive) u and ur trash ass senate program,'” the complaint said. N.S. removed the private Snapchat message later that same night, according to the suit.
But the damage was done. On Nov. 18, Sedillo and Woods informed her that they were removing her from her position as vice president and from her student senate community service class in response to her Snapchat message, the complaint said.
Beck said in his court filing that the school’s discipline was seen by N.S. as retaliation for her free expression, a violation of her constitutional rights under “Mahanoy,” referring to a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court case of a similar nature.
That case was brought by Brandi Levy, a high school student with the Mahanoy Area School District in Pennsylvania, who did not make the school’s varsity cheerleading team in May 2017. In response, while at her local convenience store, Levy made a Snapchat post with her middle finger raised, stating: “‘(expletive) school (expletive) softball (expletive) cheer (expletive) everything,'” which Beck quoted in his filing.
The eight justices, with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting, held that, “while public schools may have a special interest in regulating some off-campus student speech, the special interests offered by the school are not sufficient to overcome B.L.’s interest in free expression in this case,” according to the court’s website.
In a court filing, Mia K. Lardy, an attorney for APS, Woods and Sedillo, denied that the school’s discipline of N.S. was retaliatory or in violation of the student’s constitutional rights. Lardy also argued N.S.’ speech was not protected and that her case is distinct from the one taken up by the Supreme Court, in part, because she allegedly violated the trust of an adviser, Woods, as opposed to using profane language in connection to an extracurricular activity.
The complaint asks the court to instruct APS and school officials to reinstate her as student body first vice president; place her back into her student senate community service class; and lift their prohibition of her speaking at her high school graduation ceremony in May. The student also asks the court to declare APS’ and the school’s actions unconstitutional and that they repay her attorney fees and grant any other relief.