USA Update

A HIGH school student has scored a $20,000 payout and a public apology after being suspended for using a controversial term during class.

Now the school is wiping his record clean of racial bias claims.

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A student in North Carolina was suspended last year for a question involving the term “illegal alien”[/caption]

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The student’s family sued the school for violating her son’s First Amendment rights[/caption]

The teen was booted from school for three days in 2024 over a question he asked involving the term “illegal alien”, and now the district is backtracking.

The incident happened during an English lesson at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina.

Christian McGhee, then 17, asked his teacher if the word “alien” referred to “space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards.”

His question reportedly triggered another student, who allegedly joked that he would “kick Christian’s ass,” prompting the teacher to escalate it.

School officials ruled that McGhee’s question was racially insensitive and slapped him with a suspension.

Assistant Principal Eric Anderson said the remark was “racially motivated,” according to court records.

The phrase sparked a firestorm that led to a lawsuit from McGhee’s mother, Leah, who accused the district of violating her son’s First Amendment rights, the New York Post reported.

She also accused Anderson of mishandling the situation and named him personally in the suit.

The family has since decided to drop the case after the Davidson County Board of Education agreed to settle, per court documents.

As part of the deal, the board will pay $20,000 to help cover tuition at McGhee’s new private school.

The district will also delete all mentions of racial bias from the student’s record and issue a formal apology.

Court filings say the apology will address the “mischaracterization of racial bias” in McGhee’s disciplinary file.

The school board has agreed the deal is “fair, reasonable, and in the best interest of Christian.”

“On Friday, we filed a motion asking the court to approve a settlement that would resolve this matter,” McGhee’s lawyer told the Carolina Journal.

“Because Christian is a minor, a court hearing is required before the settlement can become final.”

The hearing is set for July 1.

McGhee was forced to transfer schools following the suspension, his family said.

“I didn’t make a statement directed towards anyone, I asked a question,” McGhee told the Carolina Journal in 2024.

“I wasn’t speaking of Hispanics because everyone from other countries needs green cards, and the term ‘illegal alien’ is an actual term that I hear on the news and can find in the dictionary.”

His mom, Leah McGhee, claimed the school took things too far and refused to let her appeal the suspension.

She hired an attorney from the Liberty Justice Center’s Educational Freedom initiative to challenge her son’s suspension.

Appearing on WBT’s The Pete Kaliner Show, Leah said the school misjudged her son.

“It is a term used as federal code, and it is a term that is heard frequently on many news broadcasts,” she said.

“I feel that if this was handled properly in the classroom, it could have easily been used as a teachable moment for everyone.”

Despite the settlement, one thing remains: the original suspension itself.

Court documents show both parties agreed to keep the three-day punishment on record due to the disruption it caused in class.

TOM DALEY once ruled the world of diving after becoming an Olympic champion.

But in a candid interview and documentary, Daley has opened up on his personal struggles to get to that point, including bullying, eating disorders and the loss of his father.

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Tom Daley has opened up on his life struggles as a diver, including grief, bullying and eating disorders[/caption]

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Daley, left, won five medals for Team GB[/caption]

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In a new documentary about his life, Daley revealed how kids threatened to break his legs[/caption]

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Daley credits husband, Dustin Lance Black and their two sons for helping him to feel comfortable in his own skin[/caption]

The now-retired Daley, 31, won five medals for Team GB across five Olympic Games, including gold for the 10-metre synchro in 2021.

His long list of accolades also included being named world champion twice, but perhaps his greatest prize now is his loving family with husband, Dustin Lance Black, and two boys, Robbie and Phoenix.

In the new documentary, “1.6 seconds“, Daley has opened up the career struggles that have shaped him into the person he is today.

And also speaking to People, the Brit has reflected on both the good and bad parts of his life.

Speaking in the documentary, Daley says: “My whole life has been about diving. My whole life has been about perfecting those 1.6 seconds.

“I spend four years training for something that goes by in less than 10 seconds in total. And I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s been the best 23 years that I can imagine.”

At the age of just 14, Daley became the second-youngest British male Olympian when he made his debut at the Beijing Olympics, but had started diving aged seven.

And despite having the support of a whole nation, back at school, Daley had begun to feel unsafe due to bullying.

The horrific bullying saw Daley called names and even saw kids threaten to break his legs, with the situation getting so bad that he and his friends were given a key to allow them to lock themselves in a classroom to escape other students at lunchtime.

In the documentary, he recalls: “I don’t think people realise how much it impacted me because I didn’t really talk about it.

“I was almost embarrassed about the fact that people were mean to me at school. I feel so sorry for that kid that had to explain what was going on.”

Daley publicly spoke about his bullying at the age of 13, but now believes he should have been “more conservative” with what he shared due to it making the situation even more overwhelming and painful.

In 2011, Daley had to fight his way through an eating disorder after being told to lose weight by the performance director at British Diving, which was all he could think about going into London 2012.

Daley said: “It was the first time where I felt that I was being looked at and judged not for how I did in the diving pool but for how I looked.

“I took some quite drastic measures to make sure that the food did not stay in my stomach…

“Every time I made a decision about what I was going to eat, if I was going to eat it and then get myself so hungry that I would end up eating so much and binging to the point where I was then so guilty — that I then had to do something about that.”

Daley admits his struggles were not helped by his internal beliefs about masculinity where guys, “didn’t have eating disorders, didn’t have any problems with their mental health,” and “were meant to be these macho things that get on with anything and you just keep going”.

As a result, Daley felt isolated, a problem which was only deepened with the tragic loss of his father, Robert, from brain cancer just days after he turned 17.

On his grief, Daley says: “I think there was something about when he was gone that I think in turn, probably did have something to do with all that I’ve faced.

“The feeling like I had to face it alone because I didn’t want to upset anyone else or bother anyone else because they were already going through enough.”

His father had kept the seriousness of his illness hidden from his children for as long as he could, as he was determined not to let it overshadow his son’s growing success.

In the documentary, Daley reflects: “He didn’t care how well I did. He didn’t care if I came last. He didn’t care if I bombed out. Like there was no concern about the outcome.

“He just wanted to be there.… He just loved seeing me dive. He was the one person that I could go to to speak about anything and everything and feel like I had someone on my side.

“I didn’t just lose my dad, because he was much more than that.

“He was my biggest cheerleader, my best friend, mentor. I mean, our whole life came to a standstill.”

However, Daley says he understands his father’s decision to keep it close to heart, saying to People: “Now that I think about it as a parent, it would be like trying to explain that to my oldest son.

“And, you know, if one of the kids knew, then they were all going to know. As a parent, you want to protect your kids from anything that’s going into that.”

He added: “So I just think… that’s part of the reason for the documentary and like how grateful I am to have all of that archival footage.

“All of those moments… forever immortalised by being able to actually have copies of that digitised.”

Daley’s world of isolation came crashing down when he met his husband and eventually started a family.

In 1.6 seconds, he explains: “I finally found perspective, and I didn’t put all of my self-worth and self-esteem based on how well I did in diving.

“I started to realise that I was more than just a diver. [I am] a husband, a father, a friend, a son.”

Despite the struggles he has been through, the Olympic legend, father and husband says: “You know, there’s much of my life formed and shaped because of the experiences I went through — the good and the bad.

“Those things formed me and created the person I am today.”

THE judge in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal trial has threatened to throw the music executive out of the courtroom after he tried to interact with the jury.

Judge Arun Subramanian singled out Combs before the jury returned from its lunch break, calling his behavior “absolutely unacceptable.”

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“There was a line of questioning where your client was nodding vigorously and looking at the jury,” the judge told Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lead defense attorney.

“I could not have been any clearer in terms of what I said.”

Judge Subramanian said he saw Combs looking and attempting to interact with the jury on two separate occasions during the testimony of Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura.

“I looked and I saw you client looking at the jury and nodding vigorously,” the judge added.

“It is absolutely unacceptable.”

The judge then asked Agnifilo, “Is it going to happen again?” to which the defense attorney assured him it would not.

“It cannot happen again,” Judge Subramanian said, warning that if the issue continued, it could result in the “exclusion of your client from the courtroom.”

The rebuke comes a day after Combs briefly interacted with a juror during Wednesday’s proceeding.

While lawyers were conferring with the judge, Combs rubbed his hands together to keep warm in the frigid courtroom, then looked towards the jury box to see a male juror rubbing his arms, according to The New York Times.

“Cold,” Combs reportedly mouthed at the juror with a grin.

The juror nodded and smiled, according to the outlet.

After the lunch break, prosecutors called a female witness who is testifying under the pseudonym Jane to the stand.

Jane told jurors that she was in a relationship with Combs from 2021 to 2024, after meeting in Miami, Florida, in late 2020.

“He was really charming, really nice, and I was already drawn to him pretty instantly,” Jane said about her first interaction with Combs.

She described her relationship with Combs as private, but testified that the music mogul, 55, told her he was seeing multiple woman.

However, when prosecutors asked if she sensed she had the option of a monogamous relationship, Jane said no.

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COMBS DANGLES CASSIE’S FRIEND OVER A BALCONY

Jane’s testimony came after Bongolan, Ventura’s friend, told the courtroom about the “volatile” relationship between the singer and Combs.

Bongolan told jurors she was hesitant about meeting the disgraced music mogul, 55, while he was in a relationship with her friend of over a decade.

“I did not want to meet him right away. I had seen a black eye,” the witness said referring to Ventura, who she said begged her to meet Combs.

Bongolan testified about the traumatizing incident where Combs dangled her over a 17th floor balcony in 2016.

The witness told jurors that she was smoking on a balcony when Combs came up behind her, lifted her up, and put her on top of the balcony railing.

Bongolan said the music executive screamed at her, “You know what the f**k you did.”

The victim, who said she still has nightmares about the incident to this day, did not know what he was talking about.

She said Combs then threw her onto balcony furniture, leaving her with leg injuries and neck pain.

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