WASHINGTON — An Arab student group at D.C.’s largest high school filed a civil rights lawsuit Wednesday alleging it was unlawfully suppressed from sharing its views about the war in Gaza.
The suit, filed by the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Arab Student Union at Jackson-Reed High School, alleges violation of students’ First Amendment Rights, the Equal Access Act, and the D.C. Student Bill of Rights.
In the suit, members of the group, who have asked a judge to allow them to proceed under pseudonyms, say out of a concern that people “did not understand the facts about the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the war in Gaza” they sought to show a 49-minute version of a 2016 documentary, “The Occupation of the American Mind,” during two lunch-hour club meetings in December. According to the lawsuit, although other clubs have been allowed to show films during lunch hour, the school’s principal, Sah Brown, barred the club from showing the documentary because “content and individuals associated with the film may provoke strong emotional responses or polarizing views within our diverse school community.”
“The fact that the plight of the Palestinian people is considered controversial means it needs more discussion, not less,” one member of the Arab Student Union, who was not named out of a concern of reprisal, said in a statement released by the ACLU-DC. “Our school is teaching us the wrong lesson: that we should shy away from discussing critical issues when other people may disagree with us.”
In response to emailed questions about the lawsuit from WUSA9 on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for D.C. Public Schools said the district declined to comment on open litigation.
The documentary film, which is not about the current conflict in Gaza but rather the 2014 Gaza War, argues that Americans have been subjected to an intense public relations campaign aimed at warping their views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film is narrated by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, who has faced allegations of antisemitism. Earlier this year, the music rights company BMG dropped Waters over comments about Israel and Ukraine. According to the lawsuit, Brown identified Waters as one of the reasons for barring the club from showing the film and said he would “not feel comfortable associating the school with a person whose views are critical of people that are part of the school community.”
The lawsuit also claims the school censored a publication the club wanted to distribute with information about Palestine and canceled a planned Palestinian Culture Night, although it was later rescheduled for this week following what the suit described as a “review and approval process unlike any its faculty sponsor has experienced in the past or that sponsors of other clubs have ever had to go through.”
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction directing the school to treat the Arab Student Union in the same manner as other student clubs and to allow them to engage in the allegedly censored activities, including showing the documentary film, prior to June 7, which is the last day of school for seniors.
“The First Amendment would mean nothing in schools if administrators could shut down speech simply because it offends people in the community,” ACLU-D.C. Senior Counsel Arthur Spitzer said in a statement. “The logic of the First Amendment is that having tough conversations is part of learning to become citizens in our democracy.”
The lawsuit comes amid protests at college campuses across the country as students have camped out to voice their opposition to the conflict in Gaza, which has raged since a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed more than 1,100 people at an outdoor music festival and multiple Israeli settlements.
In the DMV, schools have reported a rise in both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since the Oct. 7 attack. In October, George Washington University said it was investigating after several anti-Israel messages were projected onto a library named after a Jewish alumnus and his wife. That same month, American University opened its own investigation into swastikas and a Nazi slogan found graffitied in a student dorm. A federal civil rights complaint was later filed by Jewish students at AU in January alleging the school had ignored discrimination toward them.
The Arab Student Union’s lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes. Reyes was nominated to the federal bench in 2023 by President Joe Biden.