Hundreds of students across America walked out of class this January to protest ICE.
One Las Vegas student decided to stick up for ICE.
And his assistant principal punished him for supporting ICE and is now in federal court for what he said.
Clark County School District Expelled a Pro-ICE Student While Anti-ICE Walkouts Went Unpunished
The day after hundreds of Clark County School District students walked out of class to protest ICE, a student at East Career and Technical Academy did something administrators couldn't tolerate.
He made stickers.
Six two-inch emblems supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, featuring the school's own Titans mascot logo and phrases like "ICE Immigration Enforcement" and "Border Security Academy Deportation Force."
Administrators tore them down before first period.
Then they pulled the student – identified in court filings only as N.C. – out of class and sat him down with Assistant Principal Thomas Smith.
Smith told N.C. that some students might find the stickers threatening – then compared them to a poster saying "Let's go get whitey."
Then came the burning cross comparison, because East CTA's student population is majority Hispanic.
N.C.'s father, George Crossman, heard the burning cross comparison and said exactly what any American parent would say: "I was taken aback. I was like, what are you crazy?"
How CCSD Called a Pro-ICE Sticker a Racially Motivated Incident
School officials didn't stop at the interrogation.
They searched N.C.'s school-issued Chromebook and flagged his search history – which included "Dark Secrets of Martin Luther King," "The Martin Luther King Assassination," and "Tough ICE pictures."
Based on those searches, administrators concluded N.C. was a racist.
The district suspended him, then stamped his record with a limited expulsion under the label "racially motivated incident."
Every appeal was decided by school employees.
Crossman described the process: "It was him against the school district."
The family eventually withdrew N.C. from CCSD entirely, convinced the process was rigged from the start.
Meanwhile, the students who walked out of class in protest of ICE? The district called it a truancy issue.
No expulsions. No "racially motivated incident" classifications. No Chromebook searches.
Just a tardy mark.
Tinker v. Des Moines Prohibits Exactly What Thomas Smith Did
Family attorney Amanda Nalder didn't have to dig far for her legal foundation.
Tinker v. Des Moines – decided by the Supreme Court in 1969 – established in a 7-2 ruling that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.
The Court held that school officials can only suppress student speech when it causes "material and substantial interference" with the school's operation – not simply because administrators dislike the viewpoint being expressed.
East CTA didn't claim N.C.'s stickers disrupted a single class.
They claimed the stickers were racist because of the demographic makeup of the student body.
Nalder put it directly: "The Supreme Court has held that up for over 50 years, and unfortunately, CCSD has taken an opposing viewpoint to that law."
The lawsuit, filed May 14 in federal court, names Superintendent Jhone Ebert, Principal Natasha LeRutte, and Assistant Principal Thomas Smith individually alongside the district.
It seeks damages exceeding $15,000, removal of the expulsion from N.C.'s permanent record, and reinstatement in good standing.
Student Free Speech Lawsuits Are Exposing the Same Viewpoint Discrimination Nationwide
In California, a student at Torrey Pines High School was suspended for posting "We Heart ICE – Real Americans" flyers two weeks after the school allowed protesters to carry signs reading "F*** ICE" without consequence.
That district reversed the suspension only after the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression called it out publicly.
In Virginia, 303 students at Woodbridge High School were suspended for leaving campus during an anti-ICE walkout – but that suspension came because they left the building, not because of their viewpoint.
The standard is the same coast to coast.
When students oppose ICE, it's protected expression. When a student supports ICE, it's a racially motivated incident.
One student's pro-ICE stickers got him expelled, his record permanently marked, and his future jeopardized.
The administrator who compared those stickers to a burning cross still has his job.
CCSD told Fox News Digital it "recognizes and honors" students' First Amendment rights to lawful expression.
They said that with a straight face.
Sources:
- Kristine Parks, "Las Vegas father stunned after school compared son's pro-ICE stickers to burning cross," Fox News, June 9, 2026.
- "Student files lawsuit against CCSD after expulsion over Pro-ICE message," 8 News Now, May 2026.
- "Lawsuit: CCSD student expelled for pro-ICE messages after student walkout," Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 2026.
- "California School District Reverses Suspension of Student Punished for Pro-ICE Poster," The Gateway Pundit, April 3, 2026.
- "Virginia school suspends numerous students after anti-ICE walkout," Fox News, February 2026.
