PALY Field Trip Turns Into A Lawsuit
Updated: Sep 22
By: Kevan L.
In the fall of 2025, a couple of high school students going to Palo Alto High School went on a field trip to a local mosque, a school sponsored trip for students enrolled in the Social Justice Pathway program. The Social Justice Pathway is a three-year program featuring project-based learning where students learn the practices of social justice. However, about a year later in August 2026, a community group representing Jewish, Hindu, and Zoroastrian parents and former PALY students filed a federal lawsuit against Palo Alto School District and Palo Alto High School principal, Brent Kline.
This complaint claims students were encouraged to wear religious clothes and attire, and were also given copies of the Quran. According to the lawsuit, students were also involved in a Quran memorization program. The lawsuit also claims that the photographs were taken of the students in religious attire, which were later shared without parental consent. David Rosenberg-Wohl, the attorney representing the people behind the lawsuit, spoke to KRON4 news about this lawsuit. “No one has to put a hijab on someone or forcibly quiz someone on the Quran to make this case a valid case and the issues addressed by it a serious problem. The government has no business promoting a faith,” said Rosenberg-Wohl. The lawsuit also says that during the field trip, a guest civil rights speaker, Zahra Billoo, spoke to the students. They described Zahra Billoo as a “controversial outside speaker with publicly documented hostile statements concerning Jews,” and “a controversial speaker known for publicly documented hostile and discriminatory statements regarding Jews and sharply ideological political views.”
However, many students assert that the lawsuit lacks significant information and nuance. The Social Justice Program that the students were enrolled in also studied many other religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Bahaism and Taoism. The lawsuit claims that the field trip “exposed students to foreseeable discriminatory and ideological messaging,” but many students reject that claim. Ryan, a senior who was involved in the field trip, talked to an interviewer from the Palo Alto high school’s student news site, The PALY Voice. “One of the first things that they told us when we got there was that … if you practice other religions or don’t partake in a religion, that’s totally fine.” Ryan notes. The PALY Voice also says, “The idea of the intersection between social justice and religion was explored in class through each of the seven religions we studied, and was not an idea specifically taught in relation to Islam.” Another student from Palo Alto high school states, “It was a part of our class’s religion unit where we were learning about all religions ranging from Christianity to Hinduism. I thought that, on the field trip, there was no pushing of religious ideals. It was essentially just a way to learn and be exposed to different forms of religion, faith and prayer.” This case is a great example of how different people view things in different ways. For some people, it was just a simple educational field trip learning about religion. For others, a case of religious promotion without consent.
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