A 15-year-old Palestinian student was reportedly expelled from his high school in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, last month over his mother’s “hateful and incendiary” social media posts, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations.
In a complaint filed with the US Department of Education, CAIR alleges that the Pine Crest School unfairly expelled 10th grader Jad Abuhamda in mid-November, shortly after firing his mother for supporting Palestine and condemning Israel online.
“I’m disappointed and I’m sad,” Abughamda said at a news conference on Thursday. The high school sophomore had attended school at Pine Crest since the first grade, and he argued that his removal from the school on Nov. 19 was completely unjust.
“If they said I did something, but it wasn’t bad, even that didn’t happen because I didn’t do anything at all,” he insisted.
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The boy’s mother, Dr. Maha Almasri, was previously employed as a math tutor at the private academy. According to CAIR, which is advocating on the family’s behalf, Almasri took to social media to condemn Israel’s “collective brutality” against Gaza during its war with Hamas, launched in retaliation for the Oct. 7 raid that killed more than 1,200 Israelis.
In the two and a half months since the attack, the Gaza Ministry of Health (which is run by Hamas members) has reported more than 18,000 civilian deaths from Israeli air strikes and ground engagements.
But while Almasri defended her social media posts as inoffensive and protected by free speech rights, the Pine Crest School deemed the content to be “hateful and incendiary.”
“At Pine Crest, we honor and celebrate the diversity of our students, families, and community. We embrace different opinions and spirited debate,” read a statement from the school. “However, there is no place in our institution for activity that is discriminatory, incendiary, or that supports, encourages, or incites violence or hatefulness of any kind. It is not only wrong and morally reprehensible, but disrupts learning, causes deep division, and can (and often does) lead to increased risk of violence. This type of behavior has no place in our school and will never be tolerated.”
Pine Crest further alleged that Almasri’s social media activity — which was reportedly discussed with her multiple times before her termination — was causing “significant fear and disruption among students and parents” at the school.
A page on the school’s website dedicated to the situation further claimed that the offending content included “an image of a soldier pointing a machine gun at an infant inside of an incubator” — a reference to babies killed at a Gaza hospital when airstrikes cut power to the building — “and an image with commentary suggesting that some wanted to roast babies in an oven.”
These posts were publicly visible alongside photos clearly identifying Almasri as a school employee, which “improperly linked her posts to the school.”
Addressing the reason for Abughamda’s expulsion — which the school calls a “separation” — Pine Crest stated the following:
One of the hallmarks of a Pine Crest educational experience is a positive, constructive, and cooperative relationship between the School and our families—one that is characterized by trust, respect, and cooperative participation in support of the exceptional learning environment we provide at Pine Crest. Maintaining this type of relationship with parents is essential to the School’s mission and the fulfillment of our responsibilities to students.
For these reasons, the Student Handbook and enrollment agreement make clear that if a parent engages in behavior that is “disruptive, intimidating, or overly aggressive” or “interferes … with the School’s … safety procedures, responsibilities, or the accomplishment of its educational purpose or program,” the School may take the action that it deems necessary to address the situation.
A statement from CAIR distributed just before Thursday’s press conference claimed that most of these statements were “false and defamatory,” arguing that the former tutor and her son were being punished for having “beliefs which are contrary to the school administration’s apparent stance on the Middle East conflict.”
After his expulsion just before Thanksgiving, Jad Abughamda says he has not attended classes anywhere else and is now concerned about his future college plans.
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