DC School Violating Arab Club’s Free Speech Rights, ACLU Says

Students in the Arab Student Union at Washington D.C.'s largest high school filed a lawsuit against the school principal Wednesday, saying he infringed their First Amendment rights by barring them from holding pro-Palestine events and distributing related materials.

“Their speech has been suppressed because the school does not want their viewpoint—which concerns the ongoing war in Gaza and its effects on the Palestinian people—to be heard,” the students say in a complaint brought on their behalf by the ACLU of the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit shows how the tensions between administrators and protesting students roiling college campuses around the country are also impacting high schools.

In addition to Jackson Reed High principal Sah Brown, the students are suing the District of Columbia, which oversees D.C.'s public schools.

The 19-member Union is a recognized student club at Jackson-Reed, according to the complaint. The school also has similar groups for Asian, Black, and Jewish students, the complaint also says.

In December, the Union planned a lunch hour screening for students of a documentary called “The Occupation of the American Mind.” The complaint says “The film presents a pro-Palestinian point of view and is highly critical of the Israeli government’s actions toward Palestinians.”

The Jackson-Reed students placed flyers around the school advertising the lunch hour screening that said “Let’s get educated,” according to the complaint. But days before the planned December 14 film showing, Brown canceled the event and had the flyers taken down, according to the complaint.

“Principal Brown explained that he was concerned that the views portrayed in the documentary may be polarizing and may cause a divide among the student body,” the complaint says. “He said that the movie’s narrator (Roger Waters) was a problem, and that he would not feel comfortable associating the school with a person whose views are critical of people that are part of the school community.”

In January, the club planned a Palestinian Culture Night—but the event was subsequently removed from the school’s calendar and forced off-campus instead, the complaint says.

In March, the students were told to remove parts of a self-made magazine they planned to distribute to students, they say. For example, "[d]efendants required Plaintiff to delete an image of a popular cartoon character named Handala, who is named after the resilient handal plant, and who symbolizes Palestinian resistance,” the complaint says.

They were also prevented from distributing stickers that read “Free Palestine,” according to the complaint.

By contrast, the school’s more than sixty clubs are routinely allowed to host movie screenings and distribute materials, the complaint says. For example, “a Jackson-Reed club called The Birds & The Bees Sexual Health Club has distributed condoms on school grounds, along with a flier providing information about their use,” the complaint says. “The school has not interfered with that activity.”

Jackson Reed has some 1900 students in grades 9 through 12, according to its website. It opened in 1936. In 2022 it changed its name from Woodrow Wilson High School after months of debate. According to the D.C. Public Schools website, the school is D.C.'s largest high school.

Jackson Reed and the DC Office of the General Counsel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The students are suing for violations of the First Amendment, the federal Equal Access Act, and the D.C. Student Bill of Rights.

They are seeking a court order allowing them to host and advertise their movie screening, hold a Palestinian Culture Night, and distribute their magazine and stickers. They are also seeking declarations that the principal and D.C. have violated the Constitution; a permanent injunction “directing Defendants to treat the Arab Student Union and its members in the same manner that they treat other student clubs with respect to meetings, events, and distribution of expressive material;" attorneys’ fees and costs.

The case is assigned to Judge Ana C. Reyes.

ACLU of D.C. represents the Union.

The case is Arab Student Union of Jackson-Reed High Sch. v D.C., D.D.C., 1:24-cv-01195, complaint 4/24/24.