A Missouri mother is suing her son’s school district after it suspended the teenager for posting a photo of cans that he arranged to look like an AK-47 on social media.
Riley Grunden, the mother of the unnamed 13-year-old boy, has sued the Mountain View-Birch Tree School District in Howell, Missouri, alleging that the school infringed on her son’s First and 14th Amendment rights when it issued him a three-day suspension last September.
The boy, identified as “W.G.” in the lawsuit, had posted a photo of Dr. Pepper cans that he glued together to resemble an AK-47 on Snapchat. The Snap also included a song called “AK-47,” which the boy attached using the in-app feature.
Grunden says in the lawsuit that her son was participating in a can-art trend. She argues the photo was non-threatening because her son was never holding the cans as though he was holding a gun; he just posted a photo of the glued cans on the ground.
But school officials said they were made aware of the post after it “caused fear” in at least one student.
Out of caution, school authorities asked Grunden to come in with her son the following day to be searched. The school claimed Gurden violated its rules against cyberbullying by making the post because it communicated a threatening message.
But Grunden says that her son was not trying to make threats against anyone, nor was he aware that the photo could be perceived as threatening.
“I get there is a lot of concern with all the school shootings in this world,” Grunden wrote in a Facebook post. “However, my children have no access to our guns or weapons. They are in our locked safe that only I have the code to. Parents concerned that he’s going to bring a ‘gun’ made out of soda cans is absolutely absurd.”
Even though school officials understood Grunden’s son was not trying to make a threat and did not pose a risk to other students, they suspended him for three days, which Grunden says caused him harm.
She notes the three-day suspension will appear on her son’s permanent record and could impair his ability to get into top colleges and universities. But Grunden also contends that her son’s rights were violated when the school took action against him.
“The First Amendment does not permit the Defendants to punish W.G. where Snap itself shows that there is no suggestion that W.G. was aware the Snap could be regarded as him making a threat against anyone,” Grunden wrote in the lawsuit.
The Missouri mother argues the school also failed to provide a clear understanding of unacceptable behavior in its off-campus rules, thus violating the 14th Amendment’s declaration concerning vagueness, which prohibits lawmakers from making laws that would be too vague for an average citizen to understand.
Grunden is asking a district court judge to expunge her son’s record, prohibit the school from taking similar action in the future, and award damages.
Mountain View-Birch Tree School District said in a statement to McClatchy News that it was “aware of the lawsuit that was recently filed” but could not comment because a student is involved.
“The School District is aware of the lawsuit that was recently filed. Unfortunately, because the lawsuit involves a student, we are significantly limited in what we are legally permitted to share publicly,” the district said. “For now, we can only say that we have legal counsel, who will present our side of the story and defend against these allegations.”
