For months we tried to raise awareness and spark conversation about Palestine, but Jackson-Reed’s administration blocked us from doing so. They canceled our Palestinian culture night, censored Palestinian cultural symbols from literature we planned to hand out, and prevented us from distributing certain pro-Palestinian stickers. Unlike other clubs, to my knowledge, we had to meet with administrators for multiple Palestine-related events we had planned. Even something as simple as an info table at lunch required meeting with the administration to review every detail.
Those days were exhausting. We felt like the powerful people who were supposed to help us learn and grow were the very people violating our most fundamental right to free expression. It was also intimidating to keep challenging our principal in front of everyone in our school community. Often I worried that students, teachers, and administrators were judging me and my friends for overdoing it.
But we felt confident that the administration was treating us and our activities differently than how it treated other clubs and activities — and that the administration was wrong. We were also moved by the fact that while we were safe in DC, Palestinians were losing their lives, loved ones, and homes in Gaza. And we were in it together — with each other, with our club sponsor, our families, and our communities.
The school administration agreed to let us host a heavily revised version of our Palestinian Culture Night. The joy of that celebration was so full, it’s almost impossible to describe. It was beautiful. The early evening light filtered into the school’s atrium; people read poetry; there was dancing, singing, and art; and our whole community of supporters came together to celebrate Palestinian culture.
Still, we felt more action was necessary. After months of pushing, we connected with the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia. The civil rights and liberties lawyers there agreed with our conclusion that the school was violating our rights under the First Amendment, Equal Access Act, and the DC Student Bill of Rights. The ACLU-DC believed, as we allege in our complaint, that our public school was censoring us because they did not like our point of view.
Represented by the ACLU-DC, we sued DC and Jackson-Reed’s principal. Our lawsuit to protect the rights of DC students is still ongoing today, with settlement negotiations continuing; but just two weeks after we filed our lawsuit, we reached a legal agreement with the city. The principal finally allowed us to host a movie screening, and we also agreed on a final form of our club’s planned handouts.
After the school year came to a close, I realized how exhausted I was from the constant hurdles, the constant fighting, and the constant undercurrent of worry I felt about being judged by people I knew and being harassed by people I didn’t. I’m writing this anonymously, and members of the Arab Student Union sued the school anonymously, because of the very legitimate fear of being targeted for our pro-Palestinian views.
