By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-22 16:02:03 | Updated at 2025-04-04 23:01:49
1 week ago
Long Island high school administrators painted over a student’s pro-Palestinian parking spot — and she’s suing for the “emotional trauma” of having her point of view “erased,” she said in a lawsuit.
The senior at Half Hollow Hills High School West, identified in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Khan, painted her parking spot at the Dix Hills school in late summer, an annual tradition for many schools in the region.
Starting with a coat of white paint, the teen added a picture of a watermelon with a keffiyeh pattern, her name in Arabic and the phrase “Peace Be Upon You.”
“Ms. Khan’s artwork created no substantial disruption of any school activity or threatened harm to the rights of others,” according to her Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit against the Half Hollow Hills Central School District.
But a week after classes began, a commenter in a Facebook group called “Never Forget Jewish Lives Matter” posted a photo of the paint job and urged people to call the superintendent to get it removed, Khan claimed.
The next day, Half Hollow Hills West Principal Dr. Michael Catapano allegedly hauled her into his office and “interrogated” her about the spot.
Two days later the watermelon portion of the painted spot was white washed.
“Half Hollow had no history of open tension between its ample Muslim and Jewish populations – to the contrary, it enjoyed an enviable history of positive coexistence,” Khan said in the legal filing, which seeks unspecified damages for the “emotional trauma and suffering” she endured.
“Ms. Khan takes no offense at people identifying with a cause within Half Hollow schools —she just doesn’t want her viewpoint erased,” she noted in the litigation.
The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
