Schools’ Ban on N-Word ‘Stupid but Constitutional’

A white Chicago public school teacher who was suspended for saying “nigger” in “what appears to have been a well-intentioned but poorly executed” educational discussion can’t proceed with a First Amendment lawsuit against the school board, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled (Brown v. Chi. Bd. of Educ., 2016 BL 175193, 7th Cir., 15-1857, 6/2/16).

The Chicago Board of Education may have been “short-sighted” when it suspended Lincoln Brown “for his effort to educate the students about a sensitive and socially important issue, but it did not trample on his First Amendment rights,” Judge ...