A Lengthy Island faculty district agreed to pay a $125,000 settlement to a former pupil whose pro-Palestinian art work was painted over in a highschool parking zone.
The lawsuit stemmed from a September 2024 incident at Half Hole Hills Excessive College West, which permitted seniors to brighten their campus parking spots. A Muslim-American pupil, who was a senior on the time, painted a watermelon that includes a keffiyeh sample alongside her identify in Arabic and the phrase “Peace be upon you” on her area.
On the time, protests in opposition to the warfare in Gaza have been at a peak, and the watermelon and keffiyeh, the standard Palestinian headband, are each extensively used symbols of Palestinian solidarity. The college painted over the art work after it drew outcry from some Jewish dad and mom within the district, figuring out that it had run afoul of the district’s guidelines barring political designs.
“For the college district, neutrality is the only most essential situation on the subject of limiting speech,” the Half Hole Hills College District’s legal professional, Jacob Feldman, mentioned at a faculty board assembly on the time, in response to a contemporaneous Newsday report.
The coed, who has not been recognized publicly, testified at that assembly final yr. “I used to be instructed by my principal that the watermelon was being interpreted as antisemitic by nameless adults,” she mentioned, in response to the Newsday footage. “I really feel deeply offended that the phrase antisemitic was used to explain a chunk of my art work.”
In March 2025, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit on behalf of the coed alongside Stoll, Glickman & Bellina LLP, alleging that the district had violated her free speech rights and brought on her emotional misery.
“The whitewash of Plaintiff’s pro-Palestinian speech was to not stop substantial disruption of any faculty exercise or threatened hurt to the rights of others, as Half Hole permitted and even amplified speech on different equally, much more, controversial points,” the lawsuit acknowledged, in response to the Related Press.
In courtroom filings, Steven Stern, an legal professional appointed by the district’s insurance coverage supplier, wrote that the watermelon picture “symbolized anti-Semitic hate speech,” arguing that the district ought to have the ability to dictate artwork allowed within the parking zone.
Half Hole Hills Excessive College West in Dix Hills, New York. (Google Streetview)
“Any pupil, trainer, or member of the general public might have pushed into the parking zone and fairly understood the college was endorsing a political message — or worse, anti-Semitic hate speech — by permitting it,” Stern wrote, in response to Newsday.
The settlement, which was accredited by the Half Hole Hills faculty board at a gathering on April 21, will probably be paid by the district’s insurance coverage provider, in response to Superintendent John O’Farrell.
In a press release obtained by Newsday, O’Farrell mentioned that college students have been not allowed to color their parking areas “following the incident and the disruption it brought on.”
The lawsuit was not the primary time that the college district had courted controversy over Israel-related points. Final yr, the district drew scrutiny after a research information distributed to some tenth graders described Zionism as “an instance of utmost nationalism,” prompting condemnation from Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Christina John, a workers legal professional for the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed the lawsuit alongside Stoll, Glickman & Bellina LLP, welcomed the end result in a press release.
“This settlement sends a transparent message that viewpoint discrimination and the censorship of Palestinian expression can’t be justified beneath the guise of neutrality,” John mentioned. “No pupil needs to be interrogated, silenced, or punished for peacefully expressing their id or solidarity with oppressed folks.”
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