Tennessee
Tennessee teen suspended for posting ‘tongue-in-cheek’ memes about HS principal sues district
A Tennessee high schooler who was suspended for posting social media memes poking fun at his principal is suing the district for violating his free speech — claiming he was punished as revenge by an embarrassed and “thin-skinned” administrator.
The 17-year-old — who is only identified by his initials “IP” — filed the federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Tennessee Winchester Division last week, nearly a year after being suspended for three days from the Tullahoma High School campus, roughly 75 miles southeast of Nashville.
“This case is about a thin-skinned high school principal defying the First Amendment and suspending a student for lampooning the principal on the student’s Instagram page even though the posts caused no disruption at school,” states the 48-page lawsuit, which also named the principal and assistant principal.
The rising senior had shared all three pictures of Principal Jason Quick to his Instagram story between May and August of last year outside of school hours and off school grounds, the suit claims.
One of the pictures, which IP reposted rather than created, is of the typically-serious Quick making an unflattering, silly face and holding a box of fruits and vegetables — that was originally posted to Quick’s own account — with the text “My brotha” and “like a sister but not a sister <33.”
Another depicts Quick as an anime cat with cat ears and whiskers wearing a dress, while a third shows the principal superimposed on a hand-drawn cartoon character hugging Mordecai, a character from the show “Regular Show.”
IP claims he had intended for the images to be “tongue-in-cheek commentary satirizing a school administrator” that was deeply unappreciated by Quick.
Quick and Assistant Principal Crutchfield reportedly slapped IP with a five-day, out-of-school suspension after leaning on a Tullahoma City Schools district policy prohibiting students from posting images on social media “resulting in the embarrassment, demeaning, or discrediting of any student or staff.”
The administrators also relied on a vague, unregulated policy that discourages students from participating in social media activity that is “unbecoming of a Wildcat,” IP’s lawyers at The Fire firm said in a statement.
“Here, Quick tried to ensure students could not satirize him ‘at all,’” the lawsuit states.
“Quick’s status as I.P.’s Principal does not allow him to override I.P.’s First Amendment rights. I.P. brings this lawsuit to protect the core First Amendment right of Tullahoma students to express themselves and satirize those in power.”
IP — who was being treated for clinical depression and anxiety — suffered a panic attack in front of his administrators as they handed down the punishment, which IP worried would irreversibly affect his academic career.
The student’s five-day sentence was later reduced to three days, which is also the school’s punishment for a fistfight, his lawyers pointed out.
According to his lawyers, IP was an otherwise stellar student that was undeserving of a disproportionate punishment — he boasted a 3.4 GPA, played the trombone in the school band and was the Senior Patrol Leader of his Boy Scout Troop at the time of his suspension.
“I.P.’s injuries are ongoing because Defendants’ suspension is part of I.P.’s permanent record and will likely impair I.P.’s ability to receive scholarships and gain admission to top colleges and universities because schools assess applicants’ academic and disciplinary records,” according to the lawsuit.
IP’s lawyers cited the 2021 case in which the US Supreme Court sided with a high school student — also represented by The Fire — that had been kicked off her cheerleading squad for writing “F-k school f–k softball f–k cheer f–k everything” on her private Snapchat story.
The court ruled that unless a student’s off-campus expression causes “a substantial disruption” at school, the job of policing their speech belongs to parents, not the government.
“The First Amendment bars public school employees from acting as a round-the-clock board of censors over student expression,” IP’s lawsuit states.
Tullahoma City Schools did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Tennessee defensive back Christian Harrison, the son of former NFL great Rodney Harrison, has entered the transfer portal.
Harrison announced his decision on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday. He played in the Vols’ 42-17 loss to Ohio State in a College Football Playoff first-round game on Saturday night, making two tackles and played 25 snaps.
His father, Rodney Harrison, was a two-time All-Pro, two-time Super Bowl champion and a member of the New England Patriots Hall of Fame as one of the top safeties of the past 30 years. The elder Harrison played under Bill Belichick, the new coach at North Carolina.
Harrison is the 10th scholarship player to enter the transfer portal in December. The portal is open through Dec. 28.
Harrison is a 6-foot-1, 191-pounder from Atlanta. He played 26 games with four starts over three seasons at Tennessee. He took a redshirt in 2023, so he has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
Harrison made 33 tackles, including three for loss, in his UT career. He started at nickelback early in the 2024 season after projected starter Jourdan Thomas suffered a season-ending injury in preseason practice. But by midway through this season, Boo Carter, an SEC All-Freshman performer, moved ahead of Harrison in the rotation.
Harrison was a three-star signee in UT’s 2022 class. He originally committed to Liberty and ultimately chose the Vols over Kansas State, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Utah, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and others.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
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The Tennessee Titans continue their December woes with a 38-30 loss to the Indianapolis Colts that was considerably worse than the final score line despite a fourth-quarter comeback attempt.
Indianapolis led 38-7 at one point in the third quarter after the Colts scored 38 straight, but 23 unanswered points by the Titans forced Indianapolis to run a four-minute offense to close the game out.
Tennessee (3-12) was done in by the Colts’ 24-point second quarter. Jonathan Taylor finished with 218 rushing yards and three touchdowns as Tennessee’s defense allowed 335 rushing yards overall.
Here are three key moments from the Titans’ Week 16 game:
Tennessee Titans vs. Indianapolis Colts key moments
Scenario: Titans give Colts good field position after missed 53-yard field goal
Brayden Narveson’s first field goal attempt for the Titans, stepping in for the injured Nick Folk, was from 53 yards in the first quarter with the Titans leading 7-0 with 14:16 left in the second quarter.
Tennessee could have taken a 10-point lead. But Narveson’s kick was short and wide right, giving the Colts the ball near midfield.
The Colts drove down the field after the missed field goal, tying the game on an Anthony Richardson 5-yard touchdown run.
Scenario: Jonathan Taylor’s first touchdown run of the game gives Colts the lead
In a 7-7 game, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor took off for the first of several big runs on Sunday.
Taylor sprinted on zone left run, then cut back and sprinted for a 65-yard touchdown run with 7:25 left in the second quarter. Indianapolis took the lead and never looked back.
Scenario: Kenny Moore’s interception leads to a Josh Downs TD catch, Colts’ 24-7 halftime lead
Mason Rudolph’s telegraphed pass was picked off by Kenny Moore with 1:25 left in the first half, and the Colts quickly took advantage.
Josh Downs took a quick pass on a bubble route and raced past two Titans defenders for a 27-yard touchdown catch just before halftime. Indianapolis led 24-7 at the break, and the Titans’ woes continued.
What Nico Iamaleava said after Tennessee football’s loss at Ohio State
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tennessee’s path to the College Football Playoff had been paved with cold-from-behind wins.
On Saturday night at Ohio Stadium, the Vols didn’t have another comeback effort in them.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Hindered by an uncharacteristic performance from its typically reliable defense and injuries, No. 9 Tennessee fell behind three scores in the first half against No. 8 Ohio State and didn’t have the offense to make up for it, leading to a 42-17 defeat that ended its season.
The Vols (10-3) had been plagued by slow starts through the first half of the season, more often than not able to find enough life to win.
They did it against Florida, Alabama and Vanderbilt in the triumph that clinched their first-ever playoff berth.
But that kind of start proved costly vs. the Buckeyes (11-2), who posted more than 430 yards of total offense and never came close to giving up their lead.
If there was any positive that could have been gleaned from Tennessee’s performance, it was quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
Iamaleava, at times during those stagnant starts looked very much like a freshman quarterback trying to find his footing as a now full-time starter.
In the second half of the season, though Iamaleava was more poised and the Vols’ began flourish on that side of the ball.
Tennessee didn’t flourish in many areas on Saturday. What small doses of momentum they found almost always involved Iamaleava.
He ran the ball 20 times for 47 yards, extending drive and rushing for both of the Vols’ only touchdowns.
Here is everything Iamaleava said about the performance.
On if he expected to run the ball 20 times
“I mean, 20 (carries). No, I did not expect to run that many times. Some shots that were there, and overall as a team we didn’t just execute the whole game plan, so got to be better.”
On what disappointed him most about the performance
“Just started off slow. We were supposed to come in, had a great game plan to come in and fire first, and they hit us in the mouth first. We were just trying to recover that whole game. First half I thought we did a great job of that, and second half coming in I thought we could have played at a way higher level than we did.”
On what team can take away from loss
“I think just use it as motivation. We’ve been putting in work since January to get to this point, and it sucks to go out that way because that’s not who we are. love this team. I love the team we have. Just the way tonight went was not the way we wanted it to go, and we’ll use that as fuel and motivation during this off-season to really hit it.”
On what Tennessee needs to do to beat better teams on the road
“I think that all just comes to executing on the road. Like I said, our coaches gave us a great game plan, and us as players, as the team, we’re the ones out there on the field playing, and we’ve just got to hold ourselves to a higher standard and execute at a higher level.”
On Dylan Sampson and Dont’e Thornton Jr. dealing with injuries, how it effected the game
“Shoot, at the end of the day, man, whoever is out there, whether it’s a freshman or not, we’ve got to be able to execute the same way with those guys or not, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight.“
On the difference between running an offense at home and on the road
“I would just say there’s a crowd noise that plays a factor in how we play. We can’t play as fast as we want to without tempo, and that’s really the biggest factor was crowd noise.”
On what personnel Tennessee can add to open up the offense
“Obviously in the off-season, me, Coach Joey, and Coach Heup are always have conversations about how we can excel this offense, and it’ll be that in the off-season, too.”
On large contingent of Tennessee fans that were at Ohio Stadium
“I love it. Man, I was so happy to see all the orange in the stands. It sucks the performance we gave out for them, but I hope they get home safe, man. I really appreciate their support.”
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