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THEY ACTUALLY SUSPENDED HIM FOR THIS. A 16-year-old asked whether the word “alien” meant a space alien or an “illegal alien who needs a green card.” School officials somehow turned that into a racial incident, slapped it on his record and suspended him for three days. His family took them to federal court. Christian McGhee was sitting in English class when his teacher used the word “alien” during a vocabulary lesson. He asked a simple clarifying question about what she meant. That question somehow became a disciplinary offense. Another student reportedly threatened to fight Christian over the comment, but Christian was the one suspended for “disruption,” while school officials characterized his words as racially insensitive. The fallout followed him beyond those three days. The racial-bias characterization remained in his school record, something his family argued could affect his future academic opportunities. So they fought back. The case ended with the school board agreeing to pay $20,000, publicly apologize for the “mischaracterization of racial bias” surrounding Christian’s comments and remove references to racial bias from his record. This is outrageous. A teenager asked a question during a vocabulary lesson. The school turned it into a racial incident, suspended him and put it in his record. It took a federal lawsuit to get them to admit they got it wrong. This should never have happened in the first place.