{"id":419737,"date":"2026-08-29T01:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T01:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/419737\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T01:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T01:00:11","slug":"fwisd-lawsuit-by-reassigned-principal-tossed-out-by-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/419737\/","title":{"rendered":"FWISD lawsuit by reassigned principal tossed out by judge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/shayma pt 2_fitted.jpeg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"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.\" alt=\"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.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        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.<\/p>\n<p>            Fort Worth school district<\/p>\n<p>A federal First Amendment lawsuit filed by a former Fort Worth ISD principal against the school district was dismissed on Thursday after an ongoing battle over her reassignment, which stemmed from an investigation into her <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/news\/local\/education\/article315906687.html\">social media posts.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman issued an opinion and order marking the end of a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/news\/local\/education\/article316195044.html\">lawsuit filed in June by Shayma Alzub<\/a>i, who was reassigned as a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/news\/local\/education\/article316506792.html\">principal program administrator<\/a> after facing backlash from her social media posts explaining Sharia law and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. The reassignment came days after she was announced as principal of Western Hills High School in May. In the lawsuit, she alleged the district violated her free speech and discriminated against her because of her Muslim religion.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Pittman stated that personnel matters of public agencies, such as local school districts, do not rise to the level of federal judicial review.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe facts alleged by Ms. Alzubi, while perhaps indicative of personal trials Alzubi has faced in her career as an educator, do not rise to the level of a constitutional deprivation. Federal courts are not the appropriate forum for school administration,\u201d Pittman wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, represented Alzubi in the case. Deputy Director of Litigation Gadeir Abbas said on Friday that the organization will continue to fight to have her be reinstated as a Fort Worth ISD principal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShayma lost this case because the district cleared her of wrongdoing, gave her a promotion, and then raised her salary. And in many ways, that\u2019s a win. It\u2019s still Shayma\u2019s goal to be a principal in Fort Worth, and CAIR will continue to fight with her to achieve that goal,\u201d Abbas said.<\/p>\n<p>Fort Worth ISD officials said on Friday that they do not comment on litigation matters.<\/p>\n<p>During the case, Alzubi filed a motion for a preliminary injunction requesting she be reinstated as principal, but Pittman struck down her motion, saying she was not deprived of any employment benefits and her new, higher-paying job was \u201carguably less stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fort Worth ISD was unable to substantiate in an internal investigation that Alzubi\u2019s social media posts violated district policy or state law. In court documents, district officials argued her reassignment <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/news\/local\/education\/article316612537.html\">resulted from safety concerns<\/a> after the school received threats of physical and sexual violence toward Alzubi and other staff members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlzubi is not a scapegoat, nor has she lost her freedom of speech,\u201d Pittman wrote in his previous <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/news\/local\/education\/article316698760.html\">denial to reinstate Alzubi<\/a>. \u201cAlzubi is within her right to post whatever she wants, but the District is also well within its right to put the overall safety of its community over a single individual\u2019s professional preferences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"summary gray\">This story was originally published August 28, 2026 at 1:56 PM.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/profile\/276064396\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ST_Lina_Ruis.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Lina Ruiz\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/profile\/276064396\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lina Ruiz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n<p>            Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shayma Alzubi had been announced as the principal of Western Hills High School, but has since been reassigned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-419737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}