Philadelphia teacher Keziah Ridgeway filed a federal lawsuit on May 13 against the School District of Philadelphia, alleging that the district engaged in a pattern of discrimination and retaliatory actions against her.
Ridgeway, a Black Muslim educator, has been teaching at Philadelphia’s Northeast High School (NEHS) since 2016, instructing students in African American history, world history, and social and cultural anthropology. In September 2024, Ridgeway was suspended from her classroom following a slew of incidents related to her support of Palestine and her advocacy for students of color, particularly Black and Muslim students.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleges that the district violated Ridgeway’s First Amendment rights as well as her “constitutionally protected advocacy efforts on behalf of students and marginalized communities.”
The school district did not respond to Prism’s requests for comment.
On May 15, the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced it was joining the lawsuit in a press conference held at Philadelphia’s Friends Center. Ridgeway is represented by MFI Law Group and the Law Office of Spencer Hill. Joining CAIR-Philadelphia Executive Director Ahmet Tekelioglu at the press conference were attorney Spencer Hill and community members Ethan Cohen and Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari.
Hill began the conference by sharing that since joining the faculty at Northeast High in 2016, Ridgeway had been subject to numerous instances of harassment and discrimination by fellow teachers. Hill alleged, however, that the district routinely dismissed Ridgeway’s concerns about her mistreatment.
“While at Northeast, Ms. Ridgeway has served as an advocate, as a safe space, [and] as a confidant to Muslim, to Palestinian, to Sudanese, and to all students,” Hill said. “When the district took her out of the classroom and sent her home, because she spoke up, they sent the message to those students that they didn’t matter.”
Tekelioglu said, “We want to make sure that everybody understands that this is about broader justice, that is about all of our First Amendment rights.”
Ridgeway did not speak during the press conference.
The lawsuit describes a handful of instances in depth, claiming that Ridgeway was often questioned and targeted for her religious and political beliefs. The suit alleges that in November 2023, Ridgeway and a colleague designed a professional development teaching opportunity titled “How to teach the genocide in Palestine in the classroom.” Within 24 hours of the course being approved by the district, pro-Israel faculty, staff, and community members objected and demanded that the district remove the term “genocide” from the program’s title, according to the lawsuit. Shortly thereafter, the district canceled the program entirely. One month later, Ridgeway and her colleagues prepared their own presentation on their own time, outside of the district, under the independent coalition Racial Justice Organizing. According to the suit, following the announcement of this version of the presentation, the School District of Philadelphia Jewish Family Association (SDPJFA), a recently formed pro-Israel organization that operates independently of the Philadelphia School District, began a social media campaign to defame Ridgeway.
Tensions between SDPFJA and Ridgeway came to a head last spring during an assignment that dovetailed into Northeast High’s annual Black History Month assemblies. As reported by PrismRidgeway assigned her students a project that required them to identify an Indigenous community that uses art as a tool of resistance and draw links to the use of spirituals among enslaved Black Americans. The most impressive project would be presented to the entire school. Ultimately, the winning project was a podcast created by two students that focused on Palestinian murals.
After the video podcast was presented at the first assembly, a Northeast teacher condemned the students’ work as antisemitic and forwarded it to SDPJFA. The association successfully petitioned the school district to ban any further screenings of the video.
In September 2024, SDPJFA, which has since been renamed the Jewish American Family and Friends Alliance, was mentioned in a formal complaint against Ridgeway, alleging that Ridgeway used her own personal social media to threaten violence against the coalition.
SDJFA’s suit and their outreach to not only the district but also local and state leaders, including Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, proved to be effective. On Sept. 6, Ridgeway was placed on paid administrative leave pending investigation. Further, Parker contacted Ridgeway and asked her to resign from her position on the city of Philadelphia’s Muslim Engagement Commission.
Ridgeway’s lawsuit argues that her removal from the classroom “was a pretextual and retaliatory attack by the District designed to silence Ridgeway for her political position on the conflict in Gaza and her complaints about islamophobia and inequities at NEHS and throughout the District.” Ridgeway and her attorneys further question why the district failed to move forward with an investigation into NEHS faculty who were involved in recording and releasing on social media information about the students who produced the podcast project about Palestinian murals.
During the press conference, community members and parents also discussed their thoughts on Ridgeway’s suspension and the potential consequences it could have beyond just Northeast High. Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari of West Philadelphia’s Kol Tzedek Synagogue, who is also a parent of two elementary school students, condemned SDPJFA, arguing that the group was “actually not representative of how the Jewish families of the School District of Philadelphia feel.”
“[SDPJFA] represents a minority of Jewish families who have insisted on conflating Jewish identity and the political ideology of Zionism and use that as a way to censor critique of the state of Israel and free speech around the experience of Palestinians,” Fornari said.
Fornari further expressed concern that such censorship would impact the safety of all students, both Jewish and Muslim, equally, as it threatens the ability to speak about all human rights.
“Jewish tradition is really clear that the most sacred thing is a good question,” Fornari said.
A throughline during the press conference was the ultimate impact Ridegway’s suspension would have on students, and the failure of the district to see the value in engaging in conversations about Palestine.
CAIR-Philadelphia’s Tekelioglu described students as the “most cherished component” of the diverse village that makes up the Philadelphia community. Local teacher and parent Ethan Cohen further underscored the “amazing dissonance” between how administrators and students perceive the value of lessons about the history of Palestine and the present-day genocide in Gaza.
Cohen said that students have responded positively to his courses, sharing that they often don’t discuss Palestine in other classes on genocide studies, and that finally doing so has allowed them to regain their voices. Meanwhile, administrators often push back against Cohen’s curriculum, he said.
“I often hear from administrators, ‘Ethan, the conflict is so fraught, this topic is so difficult, it is too dense, it is too complicated, why would you broach this issue now?’” Cohen said. “To which I reply, ‘Is that not what school is for? Did I not sign a contract vowing to prepare our young people for the current issues of our day?’”
Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor
