He was a child prodigy and had finished most of his high school curriculum by the end of third grade , before being restricted to studies at his own grade level beginning in fourth grade . In 1973 , with the help of the ACLU , he became the first US student ever to be awarded money damages from his principal and school board , in Bexley , Ohio , for violating his freedom of speech by sending him home for wearing a black armband on the second anniversary , in 1972 , of the Kent State shootings . He has three brothers , Eliot Borenstein , a Guggenheim Fellowship winner and professor at NYU ; Seth Borenstein , Associated Press Senior Science Reporter ; and Joe Borenstein , a contractor and investor
Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
Nathaniel Borenstein