Shayma Alzubi had been announced as the principal of Western Hills High School, but has since been reassigned following backlash over her social media posts. The educator filed a lawsuit against Fort Worth Independent School District on Thursday, June 18.
Fort Worth ISD
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Fort Worth principal who was reassigned after backlash over old social media posts about the Black Lives Matter movement and Sharia law, the organization said in a news release Friday.
Shayma Alzubi is suing the Fort Worth Independent School District for allegedly violating her First Amendment and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution, according to the complaint. The 15-page lawsuit was filed Thursday in Tarrant County.
“This is the clearest violation of the First Amendment our organization has seen all year,” CAIR attorney Gadeir Abbas said in the release. “We call on the school district to realize the unlawful path it’s walking down, change course, and return our client to her school.”
Alzubi was announced as the incoming principal of Western Hills High School on May 22, but Fort Worth ISD officials said four days later that the Muslim educator had been reassigned to another position.
According to the district’s statement, officials had become aware of several social media posts by Alzubi that didn’t align with the district’s policies or expectations.
The lawsuit alleges that Alzubi’s reassignment was really due to “the demands of online hecklers.”
“School officials made the decision to punish the incoming principal because some people online were upset,” the lawsuit states. “But those people were upset not at what Shayma said or how she said it. The online hecklers were upset that Plaintiff was Palestinian and Muslim.”
Alzubi has worked in the district in various capacities, including chemistry teacher and assistant principal, since 2013. She was promoted to the role of principal for the 2026-27 school year, and was supposed to have started her official duties at Western Hills on June 1, according to the complaint.
Alzubi had already signed her one-year contract with the district and had received and signed her compensation quote request form for the new position.
Some of the educator’s posts that were called into question included: the reposting of a Texas journalist’s definition of the Islamic term Sharia; a hashtag that expressed support for DACA recipients, and a flyer that supported the district’s mask policies during COVID.
“Internet trolls began stoking mass hysteria by digging up Ms. Alzubi’s social media activity to assert that she was unfit for the position, going so far as over a decade prior during Ms. Alzubi’s undergraduate days to find a picture of Ms. Alzubi’s coloring contest submission at a Chili’s restaurant where she had illustrated the expression ‘Free Palestine’ on her pepper,” the lawsuit states.
The morning of May 26, a district official instructed Alzubi to lock down her social media accounts, but assured her that her social media had already been vetted before she was offered the position of principal, according to the lawsuit.
Later that day, two other FWISD officials informed Alzubi that she’d been temporarily reassigned to the Department of Performance Management and School Choice. The district also removed the online announcement of Alzubi’s promotion to principal.
On Wednesday, Alzubi met with district officials “in full cooperation with its investigation,” the lawsuit states. She was asked about several posts, including a selfie taken at a Texas Christian University football game and overlaid with the Palestinian flag. Another photo was overlaid with a Black Lives Matter filter in remembrance of Atatiana Jefferson, the Black woman who was fatally shot by a Fort Worth police officer in 2019.
“All the social media activity described above originated from her personal social media accounts on her personal devices and was not conducted during business hours,” the lawsuit noted. “Ms. Alzubi’s social media activity in support of DACA, BLM, and masking during the pandemic is akin to that of many other FWISD employees who have not experienced the same repercussions as Ms. Alzubi has.”
Alzubi hasn’t received a notice on the results of the investigation and is still temporarily reassigned to a position other than principal, the lawsuit states.
Alzubi is seeking a court order reinstating her to the role of Western Hills High School principal for the upcoming school year. She’s also asking for a jury trial and monetary damages in an amount to be determined by the jury.
Alzubi told the Star-Telegram in an emailed statement in May that she felt unsafe and wasn’t sleeping in her home.
“I’m disheartened that the online noise is being emphasized over my experience and qualifications that earned me the position,” Alzubi said.
A Fort Worth ISD spokesperson was not immediately available for comment regarding the lawsuit Friday afternoon.
This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 1:45 PM.
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