A Long Island high school doled out a $125,000 settlement to a former student after district officials removed a pro-Palestinian mural she painted on her senior parking space.
Half Hollow Hills West and the 2025 graduate reached the six-figure settlement earlier this month to end a legal battle that erupted when school leaders rolled white paint over a watermelon and keffiyeh design on the parking lot pavement in September 2024.
Both symbols invoke Palestinian solidary – but led to controversy in Suffolk County’s Dix Hills and a subsequent lawsuit by the student who claimed her free speech rights were brushed aside when she tried to participate in the longtime school tradition.
“Students do not surrender their constitutional rights when they enter school grounds,” said Christina John, an attorney for CAIR-NY, in a statement this week.
“This settlement sends a clear message that viewpoint discrimination and the censorship of Palestinian expression cannot be justified under the guise of neutrality,” she added.
The young woman also claimed the school caused her emotional trauma in legal papers.
The spot also had her name in Roman and Arabic letters and the message PEACE BE UPON YOU.”
The student’s painting caught the attention of pro-Israel community members, who rallied for the high school to take action, her lawyers said.
Now-former Half Hollow Hills Superintendent Patrick Harrigan, who resigned two weeks after the issue emerged, ordered the artwork’s removal two days after Principal Michael Catapano “interrogated” the 4.0 student, who went by the pseudonym Jane Khan in the lawsuit, according to court papers.
The vice president of the Muslim Students Association broke down in tears during the meeting, the suit alleged.
While administrators reached out to members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community, they didn’t make a meaningful effort to consult the student’s parents or local Muslims in town, the suit claimed.
“No student should be interrogated, silenced, or punished for peacefully expressing their identity or solidarity with oppressed people,” John said.
While the watermelon and keffiyeh were targeted, the school has allowed contentious pieces of artwork or phrases to be painted in parking spaces held by high school seniors in the past, Khan’s legal team said.
The district, however, publicly defended Khan’s mural being erased as necessary to maintain “neutrality on controversial political matters.”
Half Hollow Hills West did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.