Judge considers immunity for Cherry Creek school officials in student's free speech case

Even though the federal appeals court based in Denver decided a high school student had plausibly claimed administrators violated his constitutional rights when they disciplined him for an anti-Semitic “joke,” a judge appeared doubtful this week that Cherry Creek School District personnel would have known their actions clearly ran afoul of the law.In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reinstated the lawsuit of C.G., a former student at Cherry Creek High School, after determining an offensive Snapchat post did not give rise to any “substantial disruption” that would justify speech-based discipline. The 10th Circuit also believed C.G. had credibly alleged he was not given the opportunity to tell his side of the story before the school imposed its discipline.On Monday, U.S. District Court Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson, whose original dismissal of the lawsuit the 10th Circuit reversed, suggested he did not see eye-to-eye with the higher court’s reading of C.G.’s allegations”His whole story was it was intended as a joke. ‘I didn’t mean it. I apologize.’ What else is there to his story than that?” Jackson said.The current proceedings in C.G.’s lawsuit revolve around whether individual school district employees, including the superintendent and high school
Read More