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The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
Two federal lawsuits have been filed against the Hamilton County Department of Education following the arrest of an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old student with disabilities.
The families of these students are suing the East Tennessee school district, arguing that school officials violated the rights of the two students when they called the police under Tennessee’s Zero Tolerance law.
In August of 2024, a 13-year-old with autism was handcuffed for telling a teacher that the school would blow up if she looked inside his backpack.
The backpack contained only one item: a stuffed animal.
According to a lawsuit filed on Jan. 3rd, 2025, school administrators deemed this to be a “mass threat” and reported the incident to a school resource officer (SRO).
The child was then “forcibly taken into custody and suspended from school.”
Then in September of 2024, an 11-year-old with autism was arrested at a restaurant despite denying that he made any such threats.
The lawsuit brought by this student’s family was filed on Jan. 9th, 2025, and states that the student simply replied, “Yeah,” when another student asked if he was going to “shoot up” the school.
According to the lawsuit, no one actually heard the 11-year-old in question say the words “shoot up.”
The child was later arrested at a restaurant and expelled from school.
This incident was also deemed a “mass threat” by school administrators under the state’s zero-tolerance law.
“The zero-tolerance policy for even uttering the words ‘shoot’ or ‘gun’ is an unconstitutional kneejerk reaction by the legislature, and has led school administrators to make rash decisions concerning student discipline,” reads the lawsuit filed on behalf of the 11-year-old student.
Both lawsuits note that the school was aware of each child’s intellectual and emotional disabilities due to the children being recipients of special education and other support resources.
It is also alleged in both lawsuits that district officials violated state law themselves by failing to follow proper protocol and allowing students receiving special education services to be physically restrained.
The juvenile court cases against these particular students have since been dismissed, but the legal battle has only just begun.
The school district has yet to file a response to either one of the lawsuits.
Reportedly, these are only two of several lawsuits brought against Tennessee school officials due to misapplication of the zero-tolerance law.
In November of 2024, Judge Aleta Trauger allowed a lawsuit against the Nashville school board to move forward.
This lawsuit was brought by two parents on behalf of their children who were also accused of making threats of mass violence at school, suspended, and arrested.
Judge Trauger ruled that the families had a “plausible claim” that the school violated the due process rights of the students by suspending them.
One of the incidents leading up to this lawsuit involved a middle-school girl being teased by friends in a group chat about “looking Mexican.”
According to the lawsuit, she jokingly texted her friends back saying, “On Thursday we kill all the Mexicos.”
The Williamson County school board argued that under state law officials are required to suspend the student and call the police even if the threat is not serious.
Judge Trauger stated that the school board’s analysis of the law “leads to absurdity.”
“The implausibility of an action – here, a middle school student killing all Mexicans – ought to affect the threat analysis,” the federal judge wrote. “What if, for example, [the middle-school girl] had threatened to cast a magical killing spell on a large group of people? What if [she] had threatened to fly to the moon and shoot at people using a space laser?”
Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville-District 25), told ProPublica and WPLN News that he is “not looking to make any changes to the law.”
“What we’re seeing coming out with all of these lawsuits, it’s sort of exactly what we were trying to educate about last year,” said Policy Coordinator for Disability Rights Tennessee, Zoe Jamail.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
One Response
Odd that the Amish aren’t plagued wit autism. Vaccines??