A federal judge ruled a group of students who were suspended and then left the School District of Philadelphia on their own after entering a school’s Muslim prayer room can proceed with a lawsuit alleging their civil rights were violated.

Only two of the four students are Jewish, but the events that occurred at the Academy at Palumbo in 2024 relate directly to Israel and Judaism.

The boys, identified as M. Danowitz, J2, Hiester and Parmar, entered a room that was identified by signage as a “quiet room,” which allegedly was designated for Muslim prayer, although the lawsuit states there is no evidence that the student body as a whole was ever officially told the room would function exclusively as a space for Muslim students. There was a Palestinian flag on the door visible from outside the room, and the suit notes the boys observed Muslim decorations once they were inside the room.

Upon entering the prayer room, the boys prayed in Hebrew, with one chanting “Am Yisrael Chai” and another doing a handstand. Students who were in the prayer room accused the boys of “trashing” the prayer room, according to Jerusalem News Syndicate, a charge the boys deny. Not long after leaving, the boys’ actions became a source of conflict among the student body, with numerous nonviolent altercations occurring in the wake of the events. The Daily Wire reported that the students remained in the room for less than 10 minutes, and that the two non-Jewish students did not say anything during the events in question.

The charging documents filed by The Deborah Project, an organization that provides legal representation to Jews facing discrimination in educational settings, on behalf of Hiester state that Hiester received 11 phone calls from A.B., a Muslim student who had previously assaulted him. A.B. allegedly told the boys he wanted to fight them and that if that fight did not happen at school, he would come to their homes. Other students also texted, called and FaceTimed the boys, according to the document.

According to the Deborah Project document, the three boys, who were students at the Academy at Palumbo, were suspended for sneaking the fourth boy, a former student, into the school.

The judge ruled the case would not be dismissed because the three boys who were students made a sufficient case that their constitutional rights might have been violated when they were reprimanded for going into the prayer room.

Following the events at the school, the students and their families moved out of the district after facing verbal abuse in person and on social media. The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 6, 2025, alleges that the school punished the boys before initiating an investigation and without due process and ignored evidence that spoke to their innocence. Two of the four boys are Jewish, although only one of the Jewish students’ families is a plaintiff in the suit.

There are also other allegations that the boys deny: The school’s principal, Kiana Thompson, told the mother of the former student that the boy engaged in “sexually stimulated or suggestive dances or maneuvers,” tore down posters and shouted that he hated Muslims. The suit stipulates that one of the boys removed a sign from the wall and “gently placed it on the floor, where he left it leaning against the wall.”

Lori Lowenthal Marcus, legal director of The Deborah Project, filed the complaint on behalf of the families. She said last year that these rumors were baseless and led to the families moving out of the district.

“All told, the statements from the alleged victims didn’t make any of the claims that were part of the rumors, and the rumors were exacerbated by agents of the school district, including a teacher from another school who sat down at the public comment table before the school board two days later — knowing it had not yet been investigated — and told a lurid story of intentional desecration of Muslim religious accouterments and attacks on Muslim girls that never happened, but she did that publicly. She wasn’t stopped by the school board.

It was livestreamed. The boys’ names were released on social media, including by teachers of the school district,” Lowenthal Marcus said in an interview with Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.

Each of the students left the school and the district following the events.

“These families weren’t shattered, because they are all strong, loving families — but they were traumatized by the idea that their sons were in physical danger in their own communities, and that the response from the school was not only to blame their sons, but when the families all showed up to meet with the principal, to throw them out,” Lowenthal Marcus said.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com