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WASHINGTON (CN) — A pro-Palestinian student group settled a federal lawsuit with Washington’s public school system on Tuesday, ending a dispute over the school’s suppression and censorship of the club’s speech.
The student group, the Arab Student Union at Jackson-Reed High School, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbiaon April 24, 2024, challenging the school administration’s efforts to block certain club activities the students argued was due to their stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
As part of the settlement, D.C. Public Schools agreed to pay the student group $95,000 in attorney’s fees, while the group agreed to dismiss their lawsuit with prejudice.
The settlement follows months of negotiations between the student group — represented by the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union — and the school system regarding its rules concerning club activities.
In March 2025, the school system issued the updated “Student Organizations and Clubs Guidance,” which maintains that a school must not deny events, materials or other media “based on the contents of the student organization’s proposed expression or message,” unless there is evidence it would “cause a material and substantial disruption in school operations.”
ACLU attorney and lead counsel Arthur Spitzer celebrated the settlement and the new guidelines in a statement on Tuesday.
“These guideline changes are a win for public education and free expression in the District of Columbia," Spitzer said. “Public school administrators are charged with facilitating student education, not censoring ideas they don’t agree with.”
The school district’s new guidelines drew on the standard set in the landmark Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, a 1969 case that affirmed students’ First Amendment rights at public schools after a group of students were suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.
A student, unnamed in court documents to avoid retaliation by the school administration, celebrated the settlement in a statement.
“We can’t learn though silence,” the student said. “I am proud that we fought for our rights and that student clubs across D.C. public schools can now express their views without fear of being censored by powerful adults.”
When the students brought the lawsuit, they argued that the school’s administration, including principal Sah Brown, suddenly began cracking down on the group’s activities, starting in December 2023 when the 19-person student group sought to host a documentary screening.
The film, “The Occupation of the American Mind” by nonprofit Media Education Foundation, aims to provide context to the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations that led to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis.
The student group said the message of the film is that the Israeli government has conducted a misleading public relations campaign in the U.S. to frame any Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people as self-defense. Further, the film shows how any critique of Israel’s actions are labeled antisemitic or pro-terrorist, even when such critiques come from Jewish voices, the civil rights group said.
To promote the screening, club members put up posters that read, “Let’s get educated!” After a parent removed one of the posters from the wall and complained about the screening to the administration, Brown canceled the event and had the remaining posters taken down.
Despite the club’s appeals, Brown would not allow the club to screen the film.
Following a meeting with the students, Brown told them that if they wished to show anything not included on a district-provided list of suggested resources on the conflict, the club would have to submit them to Brown in advance to be vetted.
When the club submitted four films for vetting in January 2024, Brown took over a month to respond, eventually replying that the films were under review and they would receive an update by the end of the week. The students had yet to hear back when they filed suit in April 2024.
In addition to facing pushback on the film, a Palestinian Culture Night scheduled for January 2024 was suddenly removed from the school’s event calendar. The only explanation provided was that the event was not scheduled a month in advance, despite the club’s faculty sponsor submitting a request 30 days prior.
When they tried to reschedule for February or March, the students said they were denied again.
Instead, the club decided to host the event at a nearby restaurant, Busboys and Poets, on Jan. 19, 2024. The event was successful, but few Jackson-Reed students not already part of the Arab Student Union attended, the students said.
Before a court hearing in May 2024, the parties reached an interim agreement allowing the club to show one of the movies it had requested and distribute its printed materials, including one page that had been censored. Brown also agreed to email all faculty and administrators reiterating that the standards for expression apply equally to all student groups.
D.C. Public Schools did not provide a comment before publication.
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