A teenager from Alabama received a standing ovation at the United Nations in Geneva after giving a speech about his experience being kicked out of school.

CJ was a senior at Paul Bryant High School in Tuscaloosa when officials kicked him out last school year for a marijuana crime he says he did not commit.

“As a star player on the baseball team, there were colleges interested in recruiting me to play on their team, which would have been a great way for me to continue my education,” CJ said last month in his speech to a UN forum. “I worked hard to get there. But that chance was taken away from me by a school discipline system that treats black kids like me unfairly.”

AL.com reported on CJ’s experience and found that in Alabama, Black students are nearly twice as likely to face every type of classroom removal as compared to their white peers, although they only make up 32% of the student population. AL.com did not use CJ’s last name because he was a minor at the time and was not charged with a crime.

Along with his dad, Cory Jones, and representatives from the Southern Poverty Law Center, CJ addressed the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

The international forum, which was created in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement, has identified structural racism in education as one of their focuses.

CJ’s told his story to demonstrate how Black students are disproportionately removed from school in the U.S.

“I have a job and still hope to go to college, but it’s harder now,” CJ said in his speech. “What happened to me made me sad and anxious and forced me to fight for my education just because of my race.

“And I hope that my story will inspire anybody that has gone through the same and to let them know that you can overcome anything and don’t never give up on yourself.”

One afternoon in November 2022, CJ missed the bus from the Tuscaloosa Career and Technology Academy, where he took classes, back to Paul Bryant High. So he caught a ride with a friend.

A school resource officer found weed in the friend’s car, but a police investigation determined that it did not belong to CJ, and someone else was charged with possession.

CJ refused to confess to having the weed and spent the rest of his senior year in disciplinary limbo. He spent two months in in-school suspension awaiting a disciplinary review hearing, where he was ultimately sentenced to an additional 40 days of alternative school. He eventually withdrew from the district to be homeschooled and finish his degree on time.

CJ  and his dad have become advocates for student due process in Alabama. Last week Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law that gives K-12 students more protections and makes it harder to kick them out of school. 

The new law also allows students to have a lawyer at their disciplinary hearings, something Tuscaloosa City Schools prohibited CJ from doing when they sentenced him to alternative school.

After CJ spoke at the UN, the room erupted with cheers and applause as his father cried.

Then, as they were nearly 5,000 miles from home, a woman walked over to CJ and shook his hand.

“I’m from Alabama,” she said. “I know exactly what you’re talking about. Hang in there.”