A high school on Long Island has agreed to pay a $125,000 settlement to a former student after district authorities removed a pro-Palestinian mural she had painted on her senior parking space.
The settlement was reached earlier this month between Half Hollow Hills West and the 2025 graduate, concluding a legal dispute that began when school officials covered up her artwork, which featured a watermelon and keffiyeh design, with white paint in September 2024.
The artwork included symbols widely recognized as representing Palestinian solidarity, sparking controversy in Dix Hills, Suffolk County. The student filed a lawsuit claiming her freedom of speech was violated when she attempted to engage in a longstanding school tradition.
“Students do not lose their constitutional rights when they step onto school grounds,” stated Christina John, an attorney from CAIR-NY, in a statement released this week.
“This settlement clearly indicates that viewpoint discrimination and the censorship of Palestinian expression are unacceptable under the pretense of neutrality,” she continued.
In the lawsuit, the former student also alleged that the school’s actions caused her emotional distress.
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.
