Protest in support of suspended CdM student canceled

After a Corona del Mar High School student was suspended for reportedly saying “Free Palestine” to another classmate, a planned rally at the high school for the student Monday afternoon was canceled.

The district superintendent confirmed Tuesday the statement that led to the suspension is not considered hate speech by Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Reports on the incident circulated online and on social media. A woman describing herself as the suspended student’s aunt took to Instagram with a photo of the suspension notice written Nov. 9 by principal Jacob Haley. It states the student was suspended for three days because he “said threatening remarks to a young lady in class.”

In her post, the woman said her nephew responded with “Free Palestine” after allegedly being called a terrorist by the female student.

Some who planned to attend Monday’s rally said the family canceled it Monday afternoon.

Neither family involved in the incident could be reached for comment as the school district did not release the name of the students. District officials said they could not confirm or deny whether or not the suspension was being carried out as it involves student records.

In remarks responding to residents and community members asking for more details about the incident at the district school board meeting, Supt. Wesley Smith said he understood people were upset, but he did not want to appropriate their outrage and frustration over not knowing all the information.

“People do get upset, and I understand why because they don’t get all of the story,” Smith said. “They read the media and, at best, that’s half-right because we’re not able to comment, not able to share what’s happening, and it’s further frustrating for people ... I’m not pretending to know how frustrating it is, but I know that it is because you don’t get to hear about personnel matters.

“We can’t talk about what we’re doing with people that work for us, and we can’t talk about students and how we’re handling their discipline. We can only talk in generalities and hope that people understand and trust that we’re doing our jobs.”

Smith went on to reiterate the district’s support of free speech and stressed that the statement “Free Palestine” is not considered hate speech in Newport-Mesa. Smith also said some of the details surrounding the suspension were not confirmed by the district, including whether or not only one student was being disciplined.

“I can’t comment on what’s happening in these instances, but what I can say in general is when we look at language used in this district — language relative to discipline — we look at to whom the language is targeted or addressed, the pervasiveness of that language and is it used to harm a student and does it disrupt the learning environment?” Smith said.

“We’re all in. Not just at one school but throughout this entire district, to make sure all 32 school sites are inclusive, accessible and safe for every single kid,” Smith continued. “That’s our commitment ... we absolutely are committed to free speech, and we’re committed to making sure that every single square inch of this district is safe for our students.”

This incident comes roughly a month after lockers at the same high school were defaced with antisemitic symbols.

In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, district officials said that reports regarding the “Free Palestine” remark on both social media and the news were inaccurate and incomplete.

“Since we must comply with and protect student privacy rights, important parts of the issue remain unknown to the public and may cause confusion. It is because of our unwavering commitment to student safety we can only share limited details,” said district spokeswoman Annette Franco. “We deeply support and value students’ right to free speech and encourage respectful dialogue about challenging and difficult subjects, but we will not tolerate speech that is hateful, hostile or that disrupts a safe and supportive learning environment for our students.

“A safe school environment is a collective commitment in communities that value each other and cultivate diversity.”

The statement goes on to state the district respects freedom of speech, so long as “their speech, expression or conduct is not obscene, lewd, libelous, slanderous, does not incite students to destroy property or inflict injury upon any person, or does not cause substantial disruption to the operations of the school,” and references state education code that deals with freedom of speech.

“We have an obligation to maintain a safe learning environment while respecting students’ rights to speak on issues. We take our obligations to students seriously, and because of this, there is an expectation for students to engage in respectful dialogue for change, not hateful speech that is directed toward a specific student population. Please know that there is more to this that we just cannot share due to student privacy laws,” Franco said.