Dahlia Saada rehearsed the poem “If I Must Die” for weeks. She wanted to be able to deliver it without a hitch at a Fayetteville-Manlius High School assembly.
Dahlia, a sophomore, is Palestinian, like Refaat Alareer, the poet who wrote “If I Must Die.” Alareer wrote the poem before he and six other family members were killed by an Israeli air strike on Gaza City in late 2023.
When Dahlia addressed her classmates on May 18, she read the poem and concluded with context, according to a video of her reading:
“Alareer was a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip. Alareer was born in Gaza City in 1979 during the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, which he said had negatively influenced every move and decision he made. Alongside many others, Alareer was killed in northern Gaza on Dec. 6, 2023. Since Oct. 7, 2023 to early 2026, over 73,000 Palestinians have been reportedly killed, and there is an average of over 80 to 90 deaths per day.”
The video captured what followed: peers, parents and teachers applauding Dahlia’s reading.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen my daughter do, and I’m so proud of her for doing that,” said her father, Fahed.
But what has followed has frustrated Fahed and more than 30 other families in the district. A day after Dahlia’s reading, F-M High School Principal Patrick McNamara sent an email to parents, characterizing the poem as “politically charged,” and noting that the district does not take political stances.
McNamara also wrote in the email that the school had failed to properly review the content of Dahlia’s poem and speech. Community members reached out to the district to express disapproval of the reading, McNamara wrote.
“The district does not take positions on political issues, and a school-sponsored assembly is not the place for any political content, regardless of the viewpoint expressed,” McNamara wrote. ”
Fahed saw the district’s statement as a public embarrassment of his daughter and a denial of Dahlia’s freedom to express her identity as Palestinian.
“You’re suppressing my daughter’s speech in a heritage assembly where she has the right to actually speak her mind,” Fahed said.
Superintendent Magda Parvey in response to questions from Central Current denied targeting Dahlia and noted the email sent by McNamara instead addressed the district’s content review process.
“It addressed the district’s review process for student-led assembly content, not any individual student. The district stands by that communication,” Parvey said.
The backlash from Fayetteville-Manlius’ administration left district families with more questions. In particular, they felt it was unclear who complained about Dahlia’s reading and what concerns there were about the poem, parents wrote in their email to the district.
A day after McNamara sent the email, a student posted a video depicting a person, identified by
parents as another F-M High student, disparaging a Palestinian flag, Fahed said. A copy of the video submitted by two district parents was reviewed by Central Current. In that copy, the poster overlaid text on the clip positing “I wonder who reported it…” in regard to the poem and McNamara’s email.
Fahed said the video was found online on May 20 and was filmed on April 11 after a Culture Fest event at F-M High School. Manlius Police Department opened an investigation into the video the night it was reported, a department spokesperson said. Central Current could not independently verify where the video took place and when it was filmed. A Manlius Police Department spokesperson declined to comment on those details.
In an email to the principal, more than 30 families cited the incident and the district’s lack of a public response as demonstrative of a double standard.
Central Current obtained and reviewed a copy of the video and has not included the video so as not to identify a minor. In the video, the student, wearing traditional Arabic clothing, can be seen off school grounds attempting to tear apart a Palestinian flag, stomping it and spitting on it.
Parvey did not answer questions from Central Current about the incident, including a question about whether the student in the video was disciplined. In a statement to Central Current, Parvey cited student privacy laws and wrote the district “does not make community-wide statements regarding student discipline.”
The incident, parents say, took place on April 11. Fahed alleged that the student came in possession of a Palestinian flag at a table that featured cuisine and traditional cultural artifacts from Palestine at the school’s annual Food and Culture Festival.
The creator of the video writes that they went to a pro-Palestine table and requested the flags they would later desecrate. The person also claims they told the people at the table they are Palestinian and were given a piece of baklava.
“Worked mainly because I was wearing mid eastern clothes,” he wrote over the video.
The video was the subject of a Manlius Police Department investigation that has since been closed. The department did not charge the student and it is unclear if the district took any disciplinary action, Lt. Gregory Snyder said.
Dahlia and Fahed said the video is a display of hatred and left them concerned for the safety and wellbeing of Palestinian students.
“I just felt targeted by it because he’s never done it to any other group, so why me?,” Dahlia said.
‘It’s about bringing back peace and love’
The video and McNamara’s email to district parents “deeply troubled” dozens of families, they wrote in an email. It also ignited a wildfire of support. Fahed said that on May 20 more than 30 district families sent an email to Parvey, McNamara, and the district’s board of education in response to the events that transpired that week.
In it, parents demanded two things: a retraction of McNamara’s email, and an apology that acknowledges perceived harm caused by the email and that addresses the conduct depicted in the social media clip.
“This swift censure resulted in in-school antagonism and anxiety for Palestinian students,” parents wrote. “It is clear that the district acted disproportionately and rapidly to protect and appease one segment of the community while disregarding the impacted students and families.”
Parents said they wanted to see their demands addressed by May 26. They are still waiting for the district to address their email publicly.
Parvey told Central Current that she has been in communication with individual parents directly but did not respond to questions about whether she has engaged with parents’ demands outlined in their email or if she will abide by them.
Fahed said Parvey has requested a meeting, but he has declined.
“I don’t want to meet with you unless you do one and two,” Fahed said. “I need you to retract that email that embarrassed and singled out my daughter.”
The superintendent denied targeting Dahlia and noted the email sent by McNamara instead addressed the district’s content review process.
“It addressed the district’s review process for student-led assembly content, not any individual student,” the superintendent wrote in an email to Central Current. “The district stands by that communication.”
F-M High School, McNamara wrote in the email to parents, failed to follow its own process wherein the club’s program advisor and the school’s Office of Student Activities review programming prior to it being presented at a school assembly. Central Current requested a copy of these guidelines from Parvey and McNamara. They did not provide one.
McNamara’s statement about the school’s review process was puzzling to Dahlia. She said her program advisor reviewed the poem and did not raise any objections.
The district’s stance on her poem and speech painted a different picture of the school’s environment than the one perceived by Dahlia. She cited the school’s Club America chapter — the club has stirred controversy elsewhere in Onondaga County — to point out that F-M students are politically active in school.
“People definitely talk about their political opinions, and lots of people are open about it,” Dahlia said.
On May 20, two days after Dahlia recited the poem, Fahed and McNamara spoke. The principal, Fahed said, apologized for the content of the email sent to parents. The poem itself was not an issue, Fahed said, recounting their conversation.
“It was the words after the poem,” Fahed said.
Similarly, Dahlia said McNamara summoned her to his office to apologize the day after he sent the email.
“This poem is really beautiful,” Dahlia said. “It is about bringing back peace and love.”
Members of Syracuse’s Jewish community wrote to the district in support of Dahlia and Palestinian students at F-M High School. The local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization of Jewish people vying for Palestinian liberation, wrote in a statement that to be able to celebrate students’ cultural identities, the district should engage with the politics inherent to those identities.
Dana Carmeli, a member of the group, condemned the video of the student desecrating the flag in an interview with Central Current. She said the district’s lack of public acknowledgement of the incident after denouncing Dahlia’s recitation of the poem is a double standard.
“As a Jewish organization, something that we feel strongly about is the need to protect free speech of all people, because so many of our ancestors’ stories come from persecution of people based on their religion, their culture, and their identity,” Carmeli said.
As parents continue pushing for a retraction of McNamara’s email, Fahed said parents are considering speaking out at the upcoming board of education meeting on June 8.
Fahed said Dahlia’s situation has been dizzying. He said he worries the district’s actions regarding Dahlia’s poem and speech will be indicative of issues his three other children, who are enrolled at other schools at F-M, could face in the future.
“I just want to make sure they’re treated equally,” he said. “I don’t want any special treatment.”
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