May 15, 2025
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Keziah Ridgeway accused the School District of Philadelphia and several officials of discrimination and retaliation in a federal lawsuit. The Northeast High teacher said her support of Gaza and complaints about Islamophobia resulted in disciplinary action.
A teacher at Northeast High School said she endured years of harassment over her Muslim faith and was disciplined when she spoke out. Now, she's suing the School District of Philadelphia for discrimination and violations of free speech.
In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, lawyers for Keziah Ridgeway allege she was unfairly placed on administrative leave and removed from her classroom for eight months due to a smear campaign led by pro-Israel teachers and community members.
Ridgeway, a Black Muslim woman, said the group sent thousands of emails to the school district, City Council members and Gov. Josh Shapiro calling her an antisemite and demanding she be fired. Their efforts, the litigation claims, led to a school district investigation that resulted in her reassignment and unpaid suspension.
A representative for the School District of Philadelphia said it does not comment on pending litigation.
Prior to this action, Ridgeway had taught African American history and other social studies courses at Northeast High School without "any reprimand for discipline or performance," according to the suit. She had also won several teaching awards during her tenure. But her support of Palestine allegedly sparked complaints among her colleagues.
Ridgeway claims pro-Israel faculty filed a grievance with the school district when she wore buttons reading "Free Palestine" and "Sudan in Our Hearts" — accessories she helped a student group obtain and sell for fundraising — in 2023. (The buttons were a compromise with school leadership, the lawsuit continues, after the students were prohibited from wearing keffiyeh.) That December, staffers objected to Ridgeway participating in a professional development teaching opportunity called "How to teach the genocide in Palestine in the classroom," which was allegedly approved and then canceled by the school district.
Around this time, a group called School District of Philadelphia Jewish Family Association formed, which the suit claims shared confidential information about Muslim students at NEHS and branded Ridgeway an antisemite. The group included school staff and community members, the lawsuit says, who began monitoring Ridgeway's personal social media accounts, where she denounced Israel's actions in Gaza.
The situation apparently escalated when Ridgeway assigned a project for her students to compare and contrast the protest art of a modern-day oppressed or indigenous group with that of Black Americans during slavery. The best project would be broadcast across the school district for Black History Month. Ridgeway allegedly selected a student work on Palestine, which the principal approved to show at a school assembly. It swiftly drew criticism, however, from other faculty members. They told Ridgeway to "focus on MLK and Harriet Tubman," according to the lawsuit.
In the months following this incident, members of the Jewish Family Association group allegedly placed Ridgeway on a website that leaked her personal information. She said she received death threats and "constant" harassment. One City Council member allegedly received 1,500 emails calling for Ridgeway's firing. When she later gained access to the group's social media page and recognized school district employees, she reportedly planned to publicize their involvement. "Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun," she wrote on social media in August 2024.
Members of the group reported this post to the school district, the lawsuit said, claiming Ridgeway was threatening gun violence. The school district launched an investigation into her conduct, during which she was relegated to remote work. This action drew protest from some parents and educators. Ridgeway was later reassigned to another high school within the school district.
During and prior to this period, Ridgeway said she and Muslim and Black students endured a "culture of Islamophobia, racism and discrimination at NEHS." A teacher physically assaulted her in a hallway, the suit claims. Ridgeway complained about this incident and others — another teacher allegedly called her and a fellow Black Muslim staffer terrorists in 2016 — to the school district, apparently to no avail. Off campus, she also encountered harassment. Ridgeway recalled a man screaming at her in Hebrew outside a nearby Starbucks on her lunch break; she arrived at the coffee shop in a keffiyeh.
She is now seeking damages for emotional distress, as well as violations of her rights to free speech, due process and equal protection under the Constitution. The lawsuit claims the school district and its officials also violated Pennsylvania's law protecting whistleblowers.
This story has been updated with a response from the School District of Philadelphia.
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