Pro-Palestinian organizations sent letters to McLean Principal Ellen Reilly and the FCPS School Board claiming that administrators infringed on students’ rights at the Palestine-Lebanon solidarity walkout in October. The letters were written by the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR), an alliance of 23 pro-Palestinian organizations, and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a local Jewish organization that supports Palestine. Sent on Nov. 4 and Dec. 11 respectively, the letters requested explanations for attempting to relocate the walkout and prohibiting certain expressions.
“We saw an unfair suppression of the voices calling out against the human rights violations that were going on,” said Paul Noursi, the co-president of VCHR. “The school administration imposed restrictions on their protests, which infringed on their rights as outlined in the FCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R).”
The day before the walkout, Reilly emailed the organizers, communicating the FCPS administration’s request for students to hold the walkout on the football field. While the walkout was still held at the front of the school, the organizers felt that trying to move it to the football field was an attempt to minimize the walkout’s intended effects.
“An important aspect of a walkout is bringing awareness to the issue being addressed,” said one of the walkout organizers, who asked to remain anonymous due to the topic’s controversy. “Moving the walkout to the football field would suppress the voices of the students and hinder the impact of their efforts.”In recent years, walkouts have been held at the front of the school, including the first Palestine solidarity walkout and the trans model policy walkout. Now, the administration is considering relocating all future walkouts.
“My biggest [concern] is safety and security—I have to put that at the forefront. The community uses our parking lot as a cut-through all the time, and there are parents picking up [students],” Reilly said. “I’ve really thought long and hard about it, and I think we’re now going to move [future walkouts] to the football field.”
The FCPS administration also requested that students avoid signs with the map of Palestine, visuals of red hands and certain chants such as ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ classifying them as hate speech under the SR&R.
“This phrase is a call for equal rights and freedom for all,” said Leah Harris, a member of JVP. “We ask FCPS to take time to understand the harms of conflating antisemitism with politically protected speech that criticizes Israel, a country that does not represent all Jews and is committing atrocities in our name.”
Others hold different views regarding the phrase and support the administration’s decision.
“While I do acknowledge that not everyone using the phrase is aware of its hateful meaning, the phrase itself is unequivocally wrong to use—it specifically calls for the destruction of the only Jewish state,” junior Sam Cohen said. “I support the decisions made by Dr. Reilly and respect her commitment to maintaining a safe school environment.”
Superintendent Michelle Reid responded to VCHR’s letter on Dec. 4, adding that another reason for moving the walkout to the football field was the academy class buses arriving at the same time.
“It took them just about a month to respond,” Noursi said. “They’ve seemed to, at the surface, address all the concerns listed in our letter. One of our biggest concerns that the superintendent didn’t really address was the free speech issues.”
Although most decisions were directed by FCPS, those who felt suppressed hoped that Reilly would issue an apology.
“Censoring the language we used felt like an attempt to diminish our voices,” the walkout organizer said. “[We want] a formal apology from Dr. Reilly for mischaracterizing and maligning the speeches as antisemitic.”
