Amid clashes at college campuses across the country, a rescheduled pro-Palestinian walkout at a New Jersey high school has become a flashpoint for debate, as statewide chapters of national organizations are now commenting on the push-and-pull of the controversial event, which has already drawn the ire of local and county politicians.
The New Jersey chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a strong rebuke to county and school officials earlier this week about the rescheduled student walkout at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees in support of a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The student walkout was organized with school officials and scheduled for April 26 from 10:52 a.m. to 11:17 a.m., when students would walk out of class to the football field. But three days before the walkout, a searing letter sent to the district from two Camden County commissioners put pressure on the students and administrators to reschedule the event, which is now slated for May 20.
A few weeks after the initial dustup over the walkout, the new statements from the ACLU and CAIR-NJ — taking issue with the politicians’ involvement in the rescheduling of the high school event — have thrust the high school demonstration back into the spotlight.
The tensions over the high school demonstration in Camden County is the latest in a series of local disputes at schools and colleges across the state over how officials are handling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel debates, signs and demonstrations.
In Camden County, the ACLU objected to members of the Camden County Commissioners pressuring a high school to cancel a student demonstration.
The letter from the county commissioners “incorrectly characterizes any pro-Palestinian speech as antisemitic and disregards student free speech rights under the federal and state constitutions,” the ACLU’s Policy Director Sarah Fajardo wrote in that group’s note. “The Commissioners’ letter is an overreach by government officials to stifle legitimate student speech and we urge the Board to disavow it.”
The letter defended the students’ rights to free speech and said “it is critical to distinguish political expression and peaceful protest from incidents that are antisemitic, anti-Israeli, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian, and/or anti-Arab.”
Camden County spokesperson Dan Keashen questioned the ACLU’s delay in issuing a statement almost two weeks after the walkout was rescheduled.
“The district worked effectively with the students to reschedule the event,” Keashen said.
A separate statement from the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized the district for bowing to public pressure to cancel and reschedule the student walkout after allowing a similar demonstration on Oct. 10, shortly after the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7.
“The school is clearly treating the Muslim and Palestinian students unfairly because of their stance on Palestine,” CAIR-NJ Executive Director Selaedin Maksut said in a statement. “It is a breach of the very principles of free speech and the right to assemble — principles that were respected for students who organized a pro-Israel walkout in October. Equality is a non-negotiable and bare minimum in our educational institutions.”
A spokesperson for the school district said it had no new information to share Friday, and declined to comment further.
The letter from Camden County Commissioners Jeff Nash and Melinda Kane excoriated school administrators for allowing a student demonstration in support of Palestinians during the school day, calling it antisemitic and threatening the district’s funding if officials did not protect students’ safety, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Before the letter from Nash and Kane, the Voorhees Township Committee issued a statement on the demonstration, and Deputy Mayor Jason Ravitz took to his personal Facebook page to object to the event that was planned during the Jewish holiday of Passover.
The planned walkout was publicized by advocacy groups outside the district, including SJ for Gaza and If Not Now New Jersey after the groups said the students asked for support in the demonstration.
“The students asked us to support them because of the irresponsible incitement from public officials who are overstepping their elected positions and simultaneously compromising the safety of the students,” SJ for Gaza said in a statement to NJ Advance Media on April 25. “We support the students’ right to free speech and their responsible search for the truth.”
The statement added that the group was started by a person of the Jewish faith and now includes a diverse group of people with approximately 30% identifying as Jewish.
After the walkout was rescheduled, SJ for Gaza posted a video of a parent on Instagram speaking at the Eastern Camden County Regional School District board meeting on April 30 raising concerns about pacifying one group of students and not others.
The walkout at Eastern Regional High School was planned during the early stages of nationwide demonstrations across college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and pushing universities to divest from companies profiting off the war.
Rutgers University in New Brunswick agreed to some of the demands that organizers of an encampment at the main campus put forth to administrators. The agreement ended a four-day encampment by students on the state university’s main campus.
At Princeton University, student demonstrators continued their pro-Palestinian demonstrations this week and some students and faculty members launched a hunger strike to pressure the university to meet their demands.
A post on X Wednesday from the student group organizing the protests said one of the hunger strikers was taken to the hospital after six days without food.
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Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Matt on X.
