Unsuspend FCPS MSA members and stop islamophobic investigations
Unsuspend FCPS MSA members and stop islamophobic investigations
The Issue
Please sign this petition to show solidarity with the members of MSA for this clearly discriminatory policy.
On Friday, October 24th, the Muslim Student Association at Thomas Jefferson High School For Science And Technology created a skit to recruit members to attend their meetings. The students crafted a recruitment skit while wearing attire resembling traditional Palestinian clothing, including distinguishing items such as the Keffiyeh and Hijab. Similar to other recruitment ads, they included an individual who stated they were not going to attend the meeting, followed by two members of the club "kidnapping" the students who were not joining the meetings. One of these individuals used the aforementioned Keffiyeh to cover the individuals face, while another was humorously carried into a crate, and pushed behind a curtain. Afterwards, two other members walk in to the scene, and are asked the same question on whether they are going to the Muslim Student Association meeting, to which they answered yes. A similar occurrence happened at Langley High School, where instead of being placed into a plastic crate, the individual was placed into a car trunk and was closed in. At the end of the video, it highlights bloopers where it shows the participants smiling and laughing; clearly, this was not meant to mimic any global events in any way. These kind of recruitment ads are incredibly common throughout clubs, and are seen as a good way to recruit members.
For evidence, here is another club's recruitment video that is exceedingly similar to the aforementioned videos, but is not a Muslim Student Association at all:
Some individuals took offense to the advertisement. Claiming that the ad resembled kidnappings occurring in the Palestine region, some individuals complained about the ad and got it taken down. This in and of itself is illogical, as the ad explicitly states that no individuals were harmed throughout the production of the video, and smiling and laughing is seen throughout, obviously implying that the skit itself was not meant to mimic current world events in any way. However, the main issues does not lie within the complaints from these individuals. The true issue lies within the administration's discriminatory and abhorrent handling of the situation.
Before continuing with the administration's decisions and policy, it is exceedingly important to make the following clear: this is Islamophobia. There is no way around it. The video, clearly humorous, mimics numerous other videos that follow this exact trend, but the only group that seems to be affected by these allegations are students that are members of Muslim Student Associations. Allowing videos such as this to be suppressed creates "acceptable" and "unacceptable" behaviors for religions, races, sexes, genders; it is the beginning of restricting what a member of a certain demographic can do.
As for the administration's decisions, they have made it exceedingly clear that they do not value the opinions of the student community. After hearing about the event, the administration interrogated students over the students rights and responsibilities for over an hour. However, the administration continued on their incredibly disproportionate response and informed magazines and newspapers such as Jewish Insider and Fox News, directly breaching "the right to privacy and to receive reasonable, non-stigmatizing accommodations regardless of underlying reasons" that the FCPS SR&R mandates. It is abundantly clear to recognize how unprecedented sending this information directly to organizations is; FCPS has an obligation to protect its students from defamation and harm, and sending information directly to news organizations without a clear-cut response to students is disgusting and unprecedented.
As a school community, it is exceedingly important that we stand with members of our Muslim community to combat the rampant islamophobia that is being disguised through the lens of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is a pressing issue, yes, but it cannot, and will not, justify Islamophobia in any manner. Please sign this petition to show solidarity with the members of MSA for this clearly discriminatory policy.
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The Issue
Please sign this petition to show solidarity with the members of MSA for this clearly discriminatory policy.
On Friday, October 24th, the Muslim Student Association at Thomas Jefferson High School For Science And Technology created a skit to recruit members to attend their meetings. The students crafted a recruitment skit while wearing attire resembling traditional Palestinian clothing, including distinguishing items such as the Keffiyeh and Hijab. Similar to other recruitment ads, they included an individual who stated they were not going to attend the meeting, followed by two members of the club "kidnapping" the students who were not joining the meetings. One of these individuals used the aforementioned Keffiyeh to cover the individuals face, while another was humorously carried into a crate, and pushed behind a curtain. Afterwards, two other members walk in to the scene, and are asked the same question on whether they are going to the Muslim Student Association meeting, to which they answered yes. A similar occurrence happened at Langley High School, where instead of being placed into a plastic crate, the individual was placed into a car trunk and was closed in. At the end of the video, it highlights bloopers where it shows the participants smiling and laughing; clearly, this was not meant to mimic any global events in any way. These kind of recruitment ads are incredibly common throughout clubs, and are seen as a good way to recruit members.
For evidence, here is another club's recruitment video that is exceedingly similar to the aforementioned videos, but is not a Muslim Student Association at all:
Some individuals took offense to the advertisement. Claiming that the ad resembled kidnappings occurring in the Palestine region, some individuals complained about the ad and got it taken down. This in and of itself is illogical, as the ad explicitly states that no individuals were harmed throughout the production of the video, and smiling and laughing is seen throughout, obviously implying that the skit itself was not meant to mimic current world events in any way. However, the main issues does not lie within the complaints from these individuals. The true issue lies within the administration's discriminatory and abhorrent handling of the situation.
Before continuing with the administration's decisions and policy, it is exceedingly important to make the following clear: this is Islamophobia. There is no way around it. The video, clearly humorous, mimics numerous other videos that follow this exact trend, but the only group that seems to be affected by these allegations are students that are members of Muslim Student Associations. Allowing videos such as this to be suppressed creates "acceptable" and "unacceptable" behaviors for religions, races, sexes, genders; it is the beginning of restricting what a member of a certain demographic can do.
As for the administration's decisions, they have made it exceedingly clear that they do not value the opinions of the student community. After hearing about the event, the administration interrogated students over the students rights and responsibilities for over an hour. However, the administration continued on their incredibly disproportionate response and informed magazines and newspapers such as Jewish Insider and Fox News, directly breaching "the right to privacy and to receive reasonable, non-stigmatizing accommodations regardless of underlying reasons" that the FCPS SR&R mandates. It is abundantly clear to recognize how unprecedented sending this information directly to organizations is; FCPS has an obligation to protect its students from defamation and harm, and sending information directly to news organizations without a clear-cut response to students is disgusting and unprecedented.
As a school community, it is exceedingly important that we stand with members of our Muslim community to combat the rampant islamophobia that is being disguised through the lens of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is a pressing issue, yes, but it cannot, and will not, justify Islamophobia in any manner. Please sign this petition to show solidarity with the members of MSA for this clearly discriminatory policy.
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Petition created on October 28, 2025