Two separate Tennessee families have filed a joint federal lawsuit against Governor Bill Lee and the Williamson County Board of Education, alleging wrongful arrests, incarcerations, and suspensions of their children under the state’s new zero tolerance policy for threats of mass violence. The families claim that their children, students in the Williamson County School District, were unjustly punished based on the district’s interpretation of the Tennessee statute.
The lawsuit argues that the speech attributed to the minor plaintiffs did not meet the statute’s definition of a threat of mass violence, which necessitates speech or actions that could reasonably lead to serious bodily injury or death of two or more persons. Despite this, both students were criminally prosecuted, placed in solitary confinement, strip-searched, forced to undergo evaluations, and put under house arrest. They were also humiliated before their peers, deprived of educational access, and suffered additional indignities, tarnishing their academic records.
The plaintiffs assert that the zero tolerance statute and the school district’s policy are unconstitutional. One student, identified as B.N., was accused after discussing guns in a lunch conversation. The other, H.M., was accused after sending a joking message to friends via school email, saying, “On Thursday, we will kill all the Mexicos.”
Governor Bill Lee’s office and the lawyers for the plaintiffs have not responded to inquiries. However, Larry Crain, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, stated that the zero tolerance law is being misapplied to penalize typical teenage behavior.
