Tennessee Christian Preparatory School in Cleveland, Tennessee, will pay gay teenager Morgan Armstrong $10,000 under a court-approved settlement resolving a lawsuit over its attempt to keep her from graduating after she came out.
A Coming-Out Post Turns Into a Suspension
Soon after Armstrong's Instagram post, school administrators Kylie Machacek and Jared Tilley summoned her and her parents to a meeting. They presented a screenshot of a private Snapchat exchange in which Armstrong had told friends she had "ruthless Trump supporting 'jesus' mfs" following her online, and accused her of making vulgar, disrespectful remarks about the school.
The school suspended her, barred her from campus, all school events, and her own commencement ceremony, and warned it would withhold her diploma and report her social media activity to colleges if she kept "slandering" the school.
Morgan did not write anything about the school at any time. She didn't post anything about the school, and the private message was not about the school.
Daniel Horwitz, attorney for the Armstrong family
A Pro Bono Fight and a Settlement
Armstrong's family retained Nashville civil rights attorney Daniel Horwitz, who took the case pro bono, and filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit in May 2025. The school initially backed off its threat to withhold her diploma, but the dispute dragged on until Monday, when a settlement was approved: $10,000 to Armstrong, her suspension rescinded, her diploma confirmed, and a provision barring the school from disparaging her to colleges and universities.
Why It Matters
Private religious schools often argue they have wide latitude to discipline students under morality clauses baked into enrollment contracts, and courts have been reluctant to second-guess that autonomy. This case shows the limits of that leeway when a school's real complaint is a student's identity, not her conduct.
The settlement includes no admission of discrimination, so it sets no formal precedent. But a $10,000 payout and a gag order on badmouthing a former student to colleges is still a tangible cost for treating a coming-out post like a disciplinary offense, and a signal to other schools weighing the same move.
Source: LGBTQ Nation
Cover photo: Strange Happenings / Pexels
