What Fort Worth Western Hills parents should know about the principal dispute

With the school year approaching, families at Western Hills High School are still waiting for clarity on who will lead the campus — and a federal lawsuit filed by the educator originally named to the job could shape the answer.

Shayma Alzubi, announced as Western Hills principal in May, was reassigned by Fort Worth ISD four days later after online backlash over old social media posts about the Black Lives Matter movement and Sharia law. She has since sued the district, rejected an alternative job offer she calls “made-up,” and asked a federal judge to put her back in the principal’s office before students return.

Here is where things stand for parents trying to sort out what it all means for their kids.

What to know

• Who was hired: Alzubi has worked in Fort Worth ISD since 2013 as a chemistry teacher and assistant principal. She was promoted to Western Hills principal for the 2026-27 school year and had signed her one-year contract, according to the lawsuit. She was scheduled to start June 1.
• What happened: Four days after her May 22 announcement, the district reassigned her. Officials cited social media posts that “may not align with the District’s social media police and expectations for staff,” according to a district statement. The online announcement of her promotion was removed.
• What the district is offering her now: A $130,000 position it calls “principal program administrator.” A district spokesperson described it as “a districtwide leadership position focused on supporting campuses in key areas of academic acceleration.”
• What Alzubi says: She rejected the offer, calling it a “made-up job that no one else in the District has.” In a July 9 filing, she wrote: “I applied for the position of Principal and that is the job I was hired to do.”
• What comes next: Alzubi filed a motion for a preliminary injunction asking a federal judge to reinstate her at Western Hills before the school year begins. Fort Worth attorney Jason C.N. Smith has joined her legal team as local counsel.
• Who is currently leading Western Hills: The district has not publicly named a permanent replacement principal. Fort Worth ISD has not said who will run the campus when classes start.

For parents: what this means for the school year

The most immediate concern for Western Hills families is straightforward: campus leadership remains unsettled with the school year around the corner.

Alzubi’s legal filing argues the district already knew about her social media presence before promoting her. The complaint says a district administrator called her before the public statement about her reassignment to tell her about the online controversy and to reassure her that her accounts had been reviewed before her promotion.

The district has not commented on the lawsuit itself. In its earlier statement, an administrator acknowledged that outsiders had raised concerns about the posts.

Community response has been vocal. At a June school board meeting where trustees approved a $904 million budget, at least 35 speakers voiced support for Alzubi during more than three hours of public comment. Most defended her professionalism and her work with students. At least eight speakers agreed with the reassignment and said her comments should have consequences.

One of those speakers was Jaxson Whittaker, an eighth-grader who plans to attend Western Hills. He told the board he was thrilled when Alzubi was announced as principal.

“This situation left me speechless,” Whittaker said of her reassignment. “Don’t let what a few bullies say about her over social media decide her role in our community.”

For parents watching this unfold, the practical questions are the ones the district has not yet publicly answered: who will greet students on the first day, whether that person is permanent or interim, and how the campus will handle the transition if the federal court weighs in before classes begin.

Ernie Moran, a Western Hills teacher, told community members at a press conference that he is also being investigated by the district over his own social media posts. He voiced support for Alzubi at the same event where community organizations Faith Power Alliance and FWISD4All called for her reinstatement.

“I’m sure a lot of people were hoping that would be the end of it, that we would forget, that we would give up,” Moran said. “But we haven’t forgotten, we won’t stop fighting, we won’t give up.”

Parents seeking updates can attend Fort Worth ISD board meetings, where public comment on the situation has been a recurring feature, or contact the district’s communications office. As of the most recent filings, there is no timeline for when the district’s investigation of Alzubi will conclude.

For First Amendment watchers: the constitutional questions

The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed the lawsuit on Alzubi’s behalf, alleging Fort Worth ISD violated her First Amendment and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution. The original complaint was tossed out because her legal team did not include a local attorney; the refiled version added Smith as local counsel.

CAIR attorney Gadeir Abbas has called the case “the clearest violation of the First Amendment our organization has seen all year.”

“If a school administrator like Shayma can lose her hard-earned promotion because she has something to say about her faith or politics, then these school officials are sending a troubling message to every teacher, administrator, and public employee,” Abbas said at the June press conference. “That, despite what the Constitution says, they would no longer, in this school district, be able to safely participate in public discourse.”

The lawsuit argues the district “gave in to an anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian hysteria in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.” It contends the reassignment was motivated by Alzubi’s Palestinian and Muslim identity, not the content of her posts.

The posts identified by the district include a selfie taken at a TCU football game overlaid with the Palestinian flag; a photo with a Black Lives Matter filter in remembrance of Atatiana Jefferson, the Black woman fatally shot by a Fort Worth police officer in 2019; a photo at the Fort Worth Stockyards during a family visit; a repost of a Texas journalist’s definition of Sharia; a hashtag supporting DACA recipients; and a flyer supporting the district’s COVID-era mask policies. Internet users also surfaced a coloring contest submission from Alzubi’s undergraduate years at a Chili’s restaurant that included the phrase “Free Palestine.”

The complaint notes that all of the activity originated on Alzubi’s personal accounts, on her personal devices, and outside business hours. It also argues that other district employees have posted similar content in support of DACA, BLM and pandemic masking without facing the same consequences — a claim central to the equal protection portion of the case.

For observers tracking public employee speech cases, the preliminary injunction motion is the immediate flashpoint. A ruling that reinstates Alzubi before the school year would set a marker on how quickly federal courts are willing to intervene when public school personnel decisions collide with online pressure campaigns.

Alzubi is seeking reinstatement, a jury trial and monetary damages.