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On the evening of Friday, October 7, 2022, LGBTQ+ high school student O.J. was hanging out at a friend’s house. The friend had just gotten a new microphone, and the group decided to mess around and record some rap lyrics.

O.J.’s lyrics were in the parodic style of “meme rap” and used the words “faggot” and “twink.” In the song, O.J. rapped the refrain, “faggot, fart, balls.” Another student at the gathering recorded lyrics that included violent imagery. O.J.’s friend uploaded the song to a popular music-sharing website

The next week at school, administrators called O.J. into the principal’s office. The school told O.J. it had received complaints about the song and was suspending him for violating the School District’s “hate speech” definition in its code of conduct. 

In communications with the District, O.J.’s father argued his son’s speech was protected by Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., a 2021 Supreme Court case that requires schools to protect their students’ off-campus, nondisruptive speech – even, and especially, when the speech is unpopular.

When his efforts to persuade the District proved unsuccessful, O.J.’s father reached out to ������ýapp�ٷ�. And on April 15, 2024, FIREsued the District on behalf of O.J. and his father in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York.

After filing the lawsuit, FIREand the District worked together to craft a robust First Amendment Regulation that will protect students’ free expression rights both on and off campus, in a manner that is consistent with and reconciles Mahanoy with the New York State Dignity for All FIREAct (“DASA”) and its implementing regulations.

The District’s insurer also agreed to pay $70,000 to ������ýapp�ٷ�, encompassing attorneys’ fees, and removed from O.J.’s student file reference to the disciplinary action based on the song. The District’s Board of Education voted to adopt the new Regulation on May 21, 2025, and FIREdismissed its lawsuit on June 25, 2025.