Dahlia Saada, a student at Fayetteville-Manlius High School
Palestinian-American student sues school over censored Gaza poem
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- Palestinian-American student challenges school censorship.
- The student was reprimanded for reading a poem about Gaza.
A 16-year-old Palestinian-American student, Dahlia Saada, has filed a civil rights lawsuit in August against her New York school district after staff condemned her reading of a Palestinian poem at a school assembly.
The suit, filed in state Supreme Court by her father, Fahed Saada, accuses school officials of violating her First Amendment rights to free speech and equal protection.
The legal action follows an incident during a school-sponsored heritage assembly where Saada recited the poem "If I Must Die" by Palestinian professor and poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed by an 'Israeli' airstrike in Gaza City in December 2023.
According to the complaint, school administrators had reviewed and approved the poem and accompanying remarks prior to the presentation.
However, the following day, the high school principal issued a district-wide communication characterizing the reading as "politically charged" and claiming it violated assembly guidelines.
Anti-Palestinian harassment on campus
The lawsuit alleges that the district’s public condemnation singled out Saada, the sole student speaking about Palestine, subjecting her to public stigmatization and severe emotional distress.
The court filing notes that shortly after the principal's email was sent to families, instances of anti-Palestinian harassment surged across student forums, including a recorded incident where another student desecrated a Palestinian flag.
"All we want is justice and clearance for my daughter's name and equality for all students," Fahed Saada stated regarding the lawsuit. "We are fighting for all kids. We want them to all be treated equally and fairly."
Legal representatives for the family emphasize that public school officials cannot selectively censor or reprimand students based on anti-Palestinian bias or discomfort with anti-colonial perspectives.
The lawsuit seeks a formal public retraction of the principal's May email, an official apology, and an injunction compelling the school district to enforce its anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies strictly.
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