A student called his congressman to ask for gun control - and was suspended for cursing

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A high school student was suspended for "disrespect" after he called his congressman's office and told lawmakers to "get off their f-ing asses" and pass gun-control laws, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., has defended his aide reporting 17-year-old Noah Christiansen's foul language to his principal last week, which the ACLU said led to Christiansen missing two days of school and being barred from joining the student government.

"Welcome to the world where words have impact," Amodei told the Los Angeles Times.

Christiansen called Amodei's office Wednesday as he and thousands of other students stood outside school to demand gun-law reforms and to protest the massacre of 17 people at a high school in Florida last month.

The 11th-grader did not expect to go totally unpunished for joining the protest; administrators at Robert McQueen High School in Reno had warned students that they would be marked tardy if they left class that day, the ACLU wrote in its summary of the day.

That was a price worth paying for Christian, whom the ACLU described as practically a model high school student: He was running unopposed for class secretary and had never had so much as a detention before (though he once went off script at a debate tournament to criticize President Donald Trump, for which he ended up writing a letter of apology.)

So he walked out of class with many others Wednesday, and during the symbolic 17-minute protest phoned a congressman to demand stricter gun control.

Amodei happens to be a big gun-rights supporter. When a staffer at his office took Christiansen's call, according to the ACLU, the student asked him to support laws making bump stocks illegal and raising the minimum age to buy a gun to 21.

And he added, the ACLU said, that "congresspeople who are not acting on gun control reforms need to get off their f-ing asses and do something."

Christiansen later blamed himself for letting his emotions come through on the phone call.

"I'm smart enough to use better words than, of course, the f-word," he told the Nevada Independent. "But at the same time, even if I do want to use words, and use them over and over again, it's my right to do so."

He didn't threaten anyone, according to the ACLU. The aide on the other end of the phone didn't even seem upset by the curse words, the group wrote in a summary of the incident.

Instead, Amodei's staffer thanked Christiansen for voicing his opinion, and hung up.

And then, apparently, he called Robert McQueen High School and reported a rude student to the principal.

"He didn't ask for any specific thing or beat the kid up," Amodei later told the Independent. "He just said, 'I wanted you know that this guy was really vulgar. We had a lot of calls and nobody else was.' "

The principal hung up with the aide and called Christiansen in for a meeting that same day, according to the ACLU. The group quoted a disciplinary report, noting that the students had "contacted Congressman Amodei's office during the gun-control protest and made offensive, disrespectful, and vulgar comments to the party on the other end of the line."

In the past, the ACLU wrote, Christiansen typically did what the school asked without complaint. For example, he had once protested a dress code that forbid girls, but not boys, from going sleeveless by wearing a shirt that read "Free the Shoulder." When administrators told him to take the shirt off, he took it off, the ACLU said.

But as he met with his principal Wednesday, Christiansen balked upon learning that he would be suspended for swearing, which Washoe County School District has deemed an act of official "defiance/disrespect/insubordination," according to the ACLU.

"Noah protested this extreme disciplinary action and even offered to serve detention instead," the group wrote. But the school held firm, the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote - suspending him Thursday and Monday (while allowing him to attend the statewide debate championship on the Friday between.)

As he served his suspension, the ACLU wrote, Christiansen learned that administrators were also refusing to seat him as class secretary and treasurer because of his offense.

"It was quite sad to recognize that people think that students' opinion don't matter and they feel the need to retaliate against them," Christiansen told the Review-Journal while finishing his suspension Monday.

He told much the same to the ACLU, which sent letters to superintendent Traci Davis, Principal Amy Marable and the congressman, demanding all punishments and complaints be revoked.

"Disciplining a student and permanently damaging their future college prospects because they actively participated in democracy will have a chilling effect on other students who are considering engaging in the political process," the ACLU wrote in one letter.

In return, the Washoe County School District released a statement to the Review-Journal. It said nothing about Christiansen's case, citing privacy laws, but noted that "The District expects students to act appropriately and with decorum."

As for Amodei, the ACLU asked him to apologize to Christiansen.

"Do you and your congressional office understand the rights the First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees us?" the group asked in its letter.

Amodei could not be immediately reached for comment, but responded in interviews Monday.

"Look, I'm not going to be the language proctor for the U.S. House of Representatives," he told the Los Angeles Times. "But I am going to allow a senior staffer who deals with all of that stuff, if they think a situation was such that it warranted saying something up the line."

The congressman added to the Independent: "I'm not apologizing because my guy accurately described what happened in the phone call."