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By Corey Little

The Williamson County Schools Board of Education and Gov. Bill Lee have been named as defendants in a federal lawsuit that alleges two middle school students were unfairly punished for threats of violence and had their constitutional rights violated.

Both of the minor plaintiffs are middle school students enrolled in the Williamson County Schools system who in 2023 were punished for the alleged threats per the district's “zero tolerance” policy.

“They each were criminally prosecuted, placed in solitary confinement, strip searched, forced to undergo evaluations, and placed on house arrest,” the Federal court complaint reads, adding that “both students were humiliated before their peers, deprived of access to their classes and curriculum, and made to suffer other indignities, including the loss of various rights and privileges, and had their academic standing forever tarnished over the misapplication of a criminal statute.”

The plaintiffs argue that the minors' speech did not rise to the level of a reasonable threat of violence, but both students were arrested, detained in the Williamson County Juvenile Detention Center, ordered by the court to house arrest, removed from their schools, and placed in the county’s Alternative Learning Center. The plaintiffs are seeking seeking $300,000 in relief actions for each child.

One incident involved a 14-year-old Page Middle School eight grader, identified by court records as “B.N.”

The incident stemmed from an August 2023 complaint from an unidentified parent who said that their child overheard “B.N. making threats about having a gun in his backpack and shooting up the school and something about a bomb at home and blowing up the school.”

B.N. disputed those claims, and said that he was recounting a story from another unidentified student who talked about guns owned by the student's grandfather.

The complaint alleges that PMS Principal Dr. Eric Lifsey told B.N.’s parents “we are not concerned” regarding any potential threats, but the student was still sent to school at ALC before returning to PMS in October 2023.

The complaint also states that the principal told B.N. "We don’t think of you as a threat, that was never the case," and that "You can blame Governor Bill Lee," referring to then recent changes in state law.

“As a consequence of the Williamson County Board of Education’s (“WCBOE’”) treatment of B.N., as described herein, he suffered a severe and serious emotional injury and was unable to adequately cope with the mental stress engendered by the circumstances of his case.”

A second child, a 13-year-old Fairview Middle School student only identified by the court as "H.M.," was arrested in August 2023 for a separate alleged threat of violence.

H.M.’s parents were told that their daughter had been chatting with five other friends on school computers when she allegedly wrote “on Thursday, we will kill all the Mexicos.”

Her parents were only informed of the one line of dialogue before later obtaining the full transcript of the conversation.

“The other girls on the chat were teasing H.M. about looking Mexican because of her darker complexion. One of H.M.’s friends asked in the chat ‘what are you doing this Thursday?’ H.M. responded in jest, ‘on Thursday we kill all the Mexico’s.’ To which another friend wrote ‘If Mexicans killed ur gonna die,” the complaint reads.

H.M. attended 20 days of school in ALC before returning to FMS.

“H.M. informed her parents that during her incarceration she was forced to sign documents that she did not understand, without the advice of a lawyer or her parents,” the complaint reads, detailing that the girl was allegedly strip searched, and “suffered the humiliation of taking a shower while a camera was present and recording.”

The complaint also alleges that the girl was denied medical attention after vomiting in a cell and suffered panic attacks while incarcerated.

Both children were suspended for a “Threat Level 1 violation” and the complaint alleges that “WCS failed to follow its Threat Assessment Flowchart,” adding that the punishment subjected the children to “serious and severe emotional injuries, unnecessary criminal prosecution, denial of access to education, and denial of substantive due process.”

Lawyers for the plaintiffs allege that the district’s policy violated the 14th Amendment rights of the children whose actions, their lawyers argue, didn't rise to the level of a credible threat of mass violence.

“As a consequence of being wrongfully accused of threats of mass violence and denied access to their course of instruction at WCS schools, the minor plaintiffs were deprived of their property interest in education.”