US student suspended for saying 'Free Palestine'
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Amid an increase in anti-Arab bias in the US, a Newport Beach student who repeatedly endured anti-Arab remarks has been suspended for saying "Free Palestine".
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An undated image of students at school in the US (Getty Images via AFP)
A student from Corona Del Mar Middle and High School faced suspension this week for defending himself against harassment directed at him by another student, as reported by school authorities and social media posts.
Annette Franco, spokesperson for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, acknowledged the student's suspension but refrained from sharing specific information. In an email to the Los Angeles Times, she claimed that students are not penalized for exercising their freedom of speech.
A pro-Palestinian protestor is seen covering a statue of #US founding father Benjamin Franklin with a Palestinian keffiyeh during mass demonstrations in #Washington, DC. #Palestine pic.twitter.com/cBc6kyk5AT
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 5, 2023
“While we cannot share specifics of the situation, due to student privacy, we assure you that appropriate action was taken based on the facts of what occurred,” Franco wrote in a statement.
“We value students freedom of speech, but we will not tolerate hateful speech in our schools, especially not hate speech that incites others to engage in this negative behavior,” she added.
In further details, a woman using the name Zeina on Instagram asserted that she was the aunt of the student. In her Instagram post, she shared information about the incident along with a picture of the suspension letter issued by Jacob Haley, who serves as the principal at Corona Del Mar Middle and High School.
View this post on Instagram
The suspension letter reportedly accuses the student of breaching two education codes that prohibit harassment and threats toward fellow students. The letter specifies the reason for the suspension as: "[The student] made threatening remarks to a young lady in class by expressing "Free Palestine".
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The student, whose identity is being withheld by The Times due to being a minor, received a three-day suspension.
According to the Instagram post, the student's aunt said her 13-year-old nephew was labeled a "terrorist" by the female student. In response, the nephew reportedly repeated the phrase "Free Palestine" multiple times.
The student's aunt affirmed that the incident was not isolated and that her nephew had been repeatedly harassed at school.
“Two weeks ago [he] was threatened with hate and racism comments by two Israeli students,” she said in a post on Instagram. “The Israeli students told him go back to your country which is [Palestine] and started laughing, saying oh too bad you don’t have a country it’s getting bombed.”
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The student's aunt added that once her sister informed the principal, he promised to talk with the two boys and that none of them would face suspension. The principal was accused of prejudice by the lady, who also included images and video of an Israeli book on his desk in the same social media post.
This comes amid an "unprecedented surge" in the number of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice incidents registered throughout the United States in the previous month, as per the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the nation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The group released data last Wednesday that revealed a sharp increase in the number of complaints filed between October 7 and November 4 in coincidence with the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestinians. According to a press release from CAIR, 1,283 requests for assistance and allegations of bias were made directly to the group during that time.
#JoeBiden has "blood on his hands," social media users are saying following the death of 6-year-old boy #WadeaAlFayoume stabbed to death by a landlord in #Chicago after expressing anti-#Muslim and anti-Palestinian views.#Palestine pic.twitter.com/N8xqxVsxbB
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 17, 2023
It is worth noting that a 7-year-old child was stabbed to death in a hate crime and his mom was badly injured on October 16 in Plainfield Township, Chicago, just after 11:30 am.
At the time, civil society and human rights organizations called for protective measures to combat racism against Palestinians and discrimination against their online content, highlighting the interconnection between the digital world and the real world.
Read next: US 'monstrous disregard for Palestinian lives': Voices from within
