Straight-A student made worst joke possible to teacher over bad grade... now his parents are suing
The Marana High School student, who only goes by NM in court documents, was suspended from the educational institution after a monitoring system picked up on a drafted email that joked about a mass shooting.
The unsent message read: 'GANG, GANG, GIMME A BETTER GRADE OR I SHOOT UP DA SKOOL HOMIE.'
He also included: 'Mister, mister, I want to date your sister,' and 'Skibidi toilet my grade is in the toilet.'
The top-performing sophomore had drafted the email to send to one of his teachers about a bad grade.
He told his mother, Karalee Merrill that he started writing jokes after feeling awkward about asking his teacher for clarification, she told The Arizona Republic.
Karalee had been shocked to learn her son had composed the message after she was contacted by school, which suspended the student over the threat.
The school's system had picked up on the draft within an hour through a program installed on students' Chromebooks - a policy parents have to sign off on every year which made clear that students could be suspended for misusing school property.
'But there has never been anything that made me think that down to the very keystrokes,' Karalee told The Republic.
His parents, Karalee and Curtis, found out about the system following their son's next-day suspension after Principal Caitlyn Kauffman left them a voicemail.
The parents tried to fight the suspension that could hurt their child's chances of getting into the Air Force Academy - a dream of his.
NM was originally given a 10-day suspension, which was later extended to 45 days after a district hearing.
It would later be shortened to 11 days on the promise that he attend three therapy sessions, which he did.
It was eventually shortened to nine days on his record, despite him having served a total of 11 days.
The parents are now suing the school, saying the suspension violated their son's First Amendment rights as he has a 'right to make a joke about school violence while at home with his mother,' their attorneys argued in the suit, viewed by Daily Mail.
The family argues NM's threat was not credible, nor was it sent, so the school didn't have good reasoning to believe any student faced potential harm.
They also pointed out the school allowed NM back into the school to take his PSAT, 'after which he waited unsupervised on campus for Karalee to pick him up,' the suit read.
NM's teachers also allegedly didn't know why he had been suspended or that he had threatened the school.
Karalee also believes her son has become a 'statistic.'
'I've heard more and more about people who have been in trouble for something similar,' she told The Republic.
'I almost feel like my son is now a statistic to make it look like: "Hey, look at what great technology we have for stopping school shootings!" And it makes me wonder how many of these statistics are similar to my son.'
'He's worked hard all his academic life to be a good student. To be a good kid. He volunteers,' she defended.
'And to feel like none of that mattered? To feel like he can do good things his whole life, and one little mistake that he didn't even realize was as big of a mistake as it turned out to be.'
She said her son lost trust, and her and her husband worry this mistake could hurt their son's future, who is hoping to be valedictorian of his class.
'Both my husband and I are former public school teachers. I get that school safety is important,' she told the outlet. 'Having had this experience, I'm realizing what kinds of freedoms... we're giving up for an illusion of safety.'
More and more schools across the nation are implementing monitoring programs similar to that at Marana High School.
Fifty-two school districts or charter schools in Arizona are using monitoring programs. Programs like these have been credited with saving countless lives.
More than 250 school shootings occurred in the US during the 2024-25 school year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Beaming Amanda Knox laughs as she poses up a storm and kisses her husband at premiere of new series based on her ex-flatmate's harrowing murder
Amanda Knox grinned and shared a smooch with her husband - at the premiere of a dramatized mini-series based on the real life case that saw her accused of murdering her flatmate during a year abroad. The divisive public figure - exonerated in the death of of her roommate Meredith Kercher - was the image of glee as she joined actors on the red carpet for Hulu's 'The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox' in New York. It's a contrast to the tone of the TV series, which explores the aftermath of the 21-year-old's student's killing. Amanda and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted in their first trial of killing Meredith but after another round of flip-flop verdicts, they were ultimately exonerated by Italy's highest court in 2015. The 38-year-old, from Seattle, Washington, has since spoken in great length about life after prison - and how she is still 'haunted' by the incident. However, her manner in photos from the event earlier this week were positively jovial, as she and Rafaello smiled alongside their actor counterparts Grace Van Patten and Giuseppe De Domenico. Despite the bleak nature of the show, Amanda sported a floral summer dress accentuated with bow-tie detailing, while her husband Christopher Robinson sported a trendy mesh blouse worn under a light grey suit. Meanwhile Rafaello donned a cheerful cornflower blue blazer and matching slacks for the occasion. The series, which is executive-produced by both Amanda and feminist campaigner Monica Lewinsky - who has spent years moving on from a sex scandal with then-President Bill Clinton - has drawn mixed reviews - especially due to the lack of active involvement from the victim's family. Despite that, the Guardian 's Lucy Mangan gave it four stars out of five, albeit lambasting an 'often dodgy' script. 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox has its flaws,' she penned. 'The mannered, Wes Anderson-lite openings to each episode sit uneasily with the harrowing hours to which they give way and the script – particularly in those openings – can be dreadful. 'We were just getting to know our young selves in this charmed and ancient city,' says Knox in a voiceover early on. 'And later: 'Does truth actually exist if no one believes it?' At one point, investigator Monica (Roberta Mattei) describes Knox providing 'unsolicited information in crude American spasms'. 'Fortunately, the main parts are held together by an unreservedly brilliant performance by Grace Van Patten as Knox, in English and Italian (halting at first, fluent by the end of Knox's incarceration), the ebullient, naïve, overconfident, shattered young woman caught in so many currents and cross-currents it seems a miracle that she ever made it back to shore.' The Times was more critical, with Carol Midgley writing: 'As you would expect, the drama is very much on Knox's side, presenting her as a co-operative and pleasant young woman caught up in an unending utter nightmare in a foreign country. 'Yes, a bit crass that she kissed and cuddled her boyfriend at the police station, but then who wouldn't want some comfort when their friend had just been found brutally murdered?' Elsewhere, ranking it only two stars out of five, Nick Hilton wrote for the Independent: 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox knew that it was swimming in morally murky waters. 'The series was originally supposed to be called Blue Moon, but transitioned to its rather twee title ahead of release. And that should give some indication about the unusually bubbly tone of this eight-part series. ''Full of hope, curiosity and the naivety of youth, I embarked on my romantic Italian adventure,' Knox informs audiences, like she's setting up an episode of Amanda in Perugia. The series leans heavily on these voiceovers to explain Amanda's quirks (such as providing an impromptu gymnastics display at the police station or wearing a T-shirt to court bearing the slogan 'All you need is love' in all caps). 'The show's visual flourishes – like a juror juggling computer-generated ears to illustrate their exposure to inadmissible evidence – mirror its goofy, confident protagonist. It also makes the tone of the series very distinct from the grim BBC procedurals we're used to in Britain, owing a debt of gratitude to schlocky tastemaker Ryan Murphy (creator of the American Horror Story anthology series). Speaking to the Guardian as filming for the show kicked off last year, Meredith sister explained the victim's family found it 'difficult to understand how the series served any purpose'. 'Meredith will always be remembered for her own fight for life, and yet in her absence, her love and personality continues to shine,' she added. 'We will forever feel this indescribable void but we live by Meredith's standards with dignity.' It comes as Amanda has revealed how Monica became her mentor as she tried to rebuild her life. The two women met at a speaking engagement in 2017, just two years after Italy 's highest court exonerated Amanda and Raffaele in Meredith's murder. Amanda told The Hollywood Reporter how she was nervous and had begged the event organizers to let her speak with Monica in private. The former White House intern obliged, and even made Amanda a pot of tea as she shared some guidance from her years trying to move past her sex scandal with then-President Bill Clinton. 'She had a lot of advice about reclaiming your voice and your narrative,' Amanda said. 'That ended up being a turning point for me.' Years later, Amanda shared her desire to tell her story on screen in an interview with The New York Times - and upon seeing it, Monica jumped on board. Together, the pair wound up assembling a creative team, including This Is Us executive producer K.J. Steinberg and famed producer Warren Littlefield, to create 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,' a limited series for Hulu. After years of planning, the duo celebrated the premiere of the show on the red carpet Tuesday. Just hours earlier, Amanda released the latest episode of her podcast, Hard Knox, in which she and Monica spoke of the importance of telling the stories of those who survived scandal. Speaking of the decision, Monica noted that she does not often pay attention to a story after it fades from headlines. 'I don't think about "How is this person rebuilding their life?"' she said, her voice cracking as she apparently started to tear up. It was Amanda that had discovered Meredith's bedroom door locked and blood in their bathroom, but after police in Italy noticed her acting odd she became a suspect. Amanda pictured speaking to the media during a brief press conference in front of her parents' home in 2015 But, she said, she thinks it is important to 'understand, as my therapist calls it, the long tale of trauma - and that it's not even just the person, but the collateral damage for people's families.' 'It's not the story of like, being a person and being gutted and then building your life back. 'And having to find yourself again,' Monica said, noting that both of their scandals arose when they were in their 20s. 'You think you know everything, you think you know who you are and it's then ripped away from you,' she reflected. 'It's reconfigured and reflected back to you as a monster that you never saw yourself as, that you actually aren't.' During that time, Amanda said, 'it's hard to remember that you have value as a human.' 'I think it's a better product because I was able to share really personal and intimate things about, you know, my life that wasn't just like a Hollywood gloss over reality,' she added. 'Like it becomes dirtier in a good way because it has all the messy humanity and you have all these scenes that I, you know, remember being in the writer's room being like, "This is an actual thing that has happened" and they were like, "You can't make this stuff up."' But the duo also sought to play on the 'anatomy of bias,' aiming to showcase how events unfold and are perceived through different people's perspectives. 'It's the way we story tell and it's the way we process a story in our own minds that is impacted by everything we're bringing to that moment that has been shaped by bias upon bias upon bias,' Lewinsky said. 'Every interaction that we have with a person is not just a straight interaction,' Knox added. 'It is colored by the context that we all carry. 'All of us are little universes inside of ourselves and we collide with each other,' she said. The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox airs on Hulu, and stars Grace Van Patten in the titular role. Elsewhere, Amanda recently said she believes the spirit of her murdered roommate Meredith Kercher still 'haunts' her. Speaking with People, she however clarified that this is 'not in that bad way that people sort of project on to me'. 'More in this benevolent spirit who is reminding me of the value of life, the privilege it is to live and the privilege it is to fight for your life,' Amanda added. 'Because she fought for hers.' Despite being freed and declared innocent, Amanda told the outlet that she has never been allowed to fully live her life. She added: 'There's always this subtext, like "Look at Amanda living her life while Meredith is dead." 'Any expression of life in my life is seen as an offense to the memory of my friend who got murdered.' She also said that she had panicked when she found out she was pregnant with her first daughter Eureka, 3. 'I did not want the first instance of my daughter's existence into this world [to] be a headline like "Amanda gives birth to know who will never get to have a daughter? Meredith",' she added. It was Amanda that had discovered Meredith's bedroom door locked and blood in their bathroom, but after police in Italy noticed her acting odd she became a suspect. At the time, Amanda put the blame on her boss at a local bar she worked at, Patrick Lumumba, who had a solid alibi, which only increased police suspicions. After an immense investigation and trial, Amanda, who was 20 years old at the time was convicted for the crime in 2009. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison for faking a break-in, defamation, sexual violence, and murder. In January of this year the defamation conviction was upheld by Italy's highest court over her comments about Lumumba. Amanda shared a video of herself weeping after the conviction was upheld, saying it was 'disappointing'. She also added on X: 'I've just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn't commit'. Her lawyers said she accused Lumumba during a long night of questioning and under pressure from police, who they said fed her false information. The European Court of Human Rights found that t he police deprived her of a lawyer and provided a translator who acted more as a mediator. Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was eventually convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. Guede was freed in 2021, after serving most of his 16-year sentence. Amanda returned to the US in 2011 after being freed and has established herself as a global campaigner for the wrongly convicted. She has a podcast with her husband, Christopher Robinson, and has a new memoir coming out next week titled, 'Free: My Search for Meaning.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Texas Democrats tear ‘permission slips' imposed by Republican house speaker
Texas Democrats are tearing up 'permission slips' they signed in order to leave the chamber, joining state representative Nicole Collier ahead of Wednesday's vote on the controversial Texas congressional redistricting maps. The slips are part of new surveillance protocols set by Texas Republicans in the house chamber, stating that Democrats would 'be granted written permission to leave only after agreeing to be released into the custody of a designated [Texas department of public safety] officer' who would ensure their return to the chamber. The move follows a two-week quorum break that had delayed Republicans' effort to redraw the state's congressional districts to align with Donald Trump's push to reshape the US House map in his favor before the 2026 midterm elections. On Tuesday, Collier chose to remain confined inside the Texas house chamber until lawmakers reconvene on Wednesday, refusing to comply with what she condemned as a 'demeaning' protocol. Collier was among dozens of Democrats who left the state for the Democratic havens of California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York to delay the Republican-controlled legislature's approval of redrawn congressional districts sought by Trump. When they returned Monday, Republicans insisted that Democrats have around-the-clock police escorts to ensure they wouldn't leave again and scuttle Wednesday's planned House vote on a new political map. But Collier wouldn't sign what Democrats called the 'permission slip' needed to leave the house chamber, a half-page form allowing Department of Public Safety troopers to follow them. She spent Monday night and Tuesday on the house floor, where she set up a livestream while her Democratic colleagues outside had plainclothes officers following them to their offices and homes. Linda Garcia, a Dallas-area representative, said she drove three hours home from Austin with an officer following her. When she went grocery shopping, he went down every aisle with her, pretending to shop, she said. As she spoke to the Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were parked outside her home. 'It's a weird feeling,' she said. 'The only way to explain the entire process is: it's like I'm in a movie.' The trooper assignments, ordered by Dustin Burrows, the Republican house speaker, was another escalation of a redistricting battle that has widened across the country. Trump is pushing GOP state officials to tilt the map for the 2026 midterms more in his favor to preserve the GOP's slim house majority, and Democrats nationally have rallied around efforts to retaliate. Gene Wu, the house minority leader from Houston, and Vincel Perez, a state representative of El Paso, stayed overnight with Collier, who represents a minority-majority district in Fort Worth. On Tuesday, more Democrats returned to the Capitol to tear up the slips they had signed and stay on the house floor, which has a lounge and restrooms for members. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, a Dallas-area representative, called their protest a 'slumber party for democracy' and said Democrats were holding strategy sessions on the floor. 'We are not criminals,' Penny Morales Shaw, a Houston representative, said. Collier said having officers shadow her was an attack on her dignity and an attempt to control her movements. Burrows brushed off Collier's protest, saying he was focused on important issues, such as providing property tax relief and responding to last month's deadly floods. His statement Tuesday morning did not mention redistricting and his office did not immediately respond to other Democrats joining Collier. 'Rep Collier's choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the house rules,' Burrows said. Under those rules, until Wednesday's scheduled vote, the chamber's doors are locked, and no member can leave 'without the written permission of the speaker'. To do business Wednesday, 100 of 150 House members must be present. The GOP plan is designed to send five additional Republicans from Texas to the US House. Texas Democrats returned to Austin after Democrats in California launched an effort to redraw their state's districts to take five seats from Republicans. Democrats also said they were returning because they expect to challenge the new maps in court. Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state 3 August, and Greg Abbott, the Republican governor, asked the state supreme court to oust Wu and several other Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent. Democrats reported different levels of monitoring. Armando Walle, a Houston representative, said he wasn't sure where his police escort was, but there was still a heightened police presence in the Capitol, so he felt he was being monitored closely. Some Democrats said the officers watching them were friendly. But Sheryl Cole, an Austin representative, said in a social media post that when she went on her morning walk Tuesday, the officer following her lost her on the trail, got angry and threatened to arrest her. Garcia said her nine-year-old son was with her as she drove home and each time she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see the officer close behind. He came inside a grocery store where she was shopping with her son. 'I would imagine that this is the way it feels when you're potentially shoplifting and someone is assessing whether you're going to steal,' she said. Associated Press contributed to this report
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘Did I just save her life?': US trucker honored as ‘angel' for role in abduction rescue
A professional trucker who had a hand in saving a California abduction victim while driving through Tennessee – and recording key video evidence with his windshield camera – recently earned recognition as an 'angel' of the US's highways, according to officials. Ron Ross, who drives for MCK Trucking in Madison, Alabama, is at the center of the dramatic story, which has seized attention in media circles dedicated to unearthing uplifting news stories. He was parked at a rest area along Interstate 40 in rural west Tennessee near the city of Jackson in February when he noticed a young woman running barefoot with her shoes in her hand. She ran about a quarter of a mile and dived into the woods while a man chased after her, according to what Ross, of Newport, Tennessee, said in a US Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) news release. 'I thought in my head: 'Something's not right about that,'' Ross said. 'It scared me.' Ross dialed 911 to call for emergency help. A nearby Tennessee highway patrol arrived within five minutes, and the woman was rescued, the TCA said. A camera on Ross's windshield recorded video of the scene that he turned over to police. From speaking with law enforcement, Ross understood the kidnapped young woman had been brought from California, and investigators believed the video was 'solid evidence to use in the prosecution of the abductor', the TCA's news release said. 'I asked another truck driver who was there: 'Did I just save that girl's life?'' read a statement from Ross cited in the press release. 'I hope I did.' The transportation safety director at MCK, David Wheeler, told the TCA that his company encourages its drivers 'to say something if they see something'. 'MCK is grateful to have a driver like Ron who makes a difference in the world,' Wheeler said in a statement. The TCA since 1997 has administered its so-called highway angels program that recognizes truck drivers who display kindness, courtesy and courage while on duty. Ross was designated a TCA highway angel at the end of June, according to the organization.
