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Former Tullahoma High School Principal Jason Quick and Derrick Crutchfield have been released from a lawsuit brought against them and the city school system claiming they violated a student’s right to free speech when he was punished for posting memes making fun of the principal. However, Tullahoma City Schools is still facing a legal battle concerning the suit as the judge refused to release them from potential liability.

U.S. District Judge Katherine A. Crytzer ruled that the principal and vice principal are both entitled to qualified immunity.

“The claim includes no factual allegations establishing why defendants Quick and Crutchfield were manifestly compromised,” the judge wrote in relieving the pair from the suit.

The suit sought to force a change in school policy as well as clear the youth’s record. The student, identified as “I.P.”, filed the lawsuit against the Tullahoma City Schools, former THS Principal Jason Quick and Vice Principal Derrick Crutchfield in July 2023 over a suspension for sharing satirical memes about Quick on his Instagram, stating it was a violation of his First Amendment rights.

The student is represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment advocacy group. Since the suit was filed, the school system has not only removed the suspension from their client’s record, but has also made changes to its social media policies while the lawsuit is ongoing. Per the stipulation recently filed, TCS took “voluntary, unilateral action” to remove the policies against posting images or videos which “discredit,” “embarrass” or “humiliate” another student or member of staff, and against social media posts “unbecoming of a Wildcat” from the high school’s student handbook.

The lawsuit contends that I.P.’s First Amendment rights were violated when Quick and Crutchfield issued the student a three-day suspension during his junior year for posting three memes satirizing Quick. The first meme showed Quick holding a box of vegetables with the caption, “My brotha” with fire emojis surrounding the caption. The second post depicted Quick as an anime cat with cat ears and whiskers wearing a dress with the caption “Neko Quick.” The term “neko” is the Japanese word for cat. The third post had Quick’s head superimposed on a hand-drawn cartoon character being hugged by a cartoon bird with the caption “Noo Jason dont lea ve me.” According to FIRE, the student intended the posts were to be “tongue-in-cheek commentary, gently lampooning a school administrator he perceived as humorless.”

While the administrators are out of the suit, the school system is still facing court action.

“Court Four (of the lawsuit) plausibly asserts a First Amendment free speech claim against the defendant Tullahoma,” the judge wrote. “It is axiomatic that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate.”

In the end, only one of the student’s claims have survived the judge’s ruling. However, that count still contains a request the court award damages.