Brody's Notes... Suburban Atlanta High School Student Council President Removed Because He Supports LGBTQ People

Reuben Lack via WXIA 11 News, Atlanta, GA

By Brody Levesque | ALPHARETTA, GEORGIA -- An honours high school student with a 3.7 GPA was summarily fired from his position as student body president according to his attorney James Radford, as the result of a resolution to the student council this past January, that supported gay students.

Reuben Lack, who was elected Student Body President at Alpharetta High School in Fulton County, Georgia just north of suburban Atlanta, had introduced a motion during a student council meeting January 12 that would have modified the school's annual prom tradition in an effort to make the positions of prom king and queen more gender neutral to accomodate the high school's LGBTQ students.

In an interview with a local television news reporter, Lack said he tabled the motion after the faculty advisers became agitated and angry at the suggestion, however he did revisit the motion during a January 26 session of the student council.

Lack's legal counsel says that his client was removed as student body president on February 8, the reason given was that Lack had verbally criticised Alpharetta High principal Shannon Kersey over issues dealing with the debate team Lack captained and other reasons, "all of which were knowingly false," according to a legal complaint in a lawsuit filed by attorney Radford on his behalf.

Lack, his family and attorney Radford met with Alpharetta High principal Shannon Kersey, and according to the lawsuit complaint, she refused to reinstate him as student body president.

"The evidence will show that Reuben was punished for exercising his right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution," Radford said.

Principal Kersey refused to comment due to the pending lawsuit and a spokesman for the school district's superintendent's office said that the school district would also not comment referring the matter to its attorney.

Lack, a member of the school's debate team, also was removed from his position on the school's Local School Advisory Committee (LSAC). He is a member of the Fulton Youth Advisory Council and attnds meetings of the Fulton County Commission as a student ambassador.

Radford said:

As the Supreme Court famously held in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District: “First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. This has been the unmistakable holding of this Court for almost 50 years.”

The evidence will show that Reuben was punished for exercising his right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. We have filed a federal lawsuit to declare his removal unconstitutional. We have filed a motion for injunction, seeking to reinstate Reuben.