Judge denies former Fort Worth ISD principal's request to be reinstated

Maven Navarro, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Jul 29, 2026

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A federal judge has ruled that a former Fort Worth ISD principal’s First Amendment lawsuit is unlikely to succeed after she was reassigned during an investigation of her social media posts, and denied her request to be immediately reinstated.

Shayma Alzubi was reassigned shortly after being announced as principal of Western Hills High School in May, following backlash regarding social media posts she made explaining Sharia law and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

Alzubi filed a motion for a preliminary injunction requesting that she be reinstated as principal after she had been reassigned to be a principal program administrator, which she called a “made up job that no one in the district has,” in previous court filings.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman wrote in his order Tuesday that Alzubi was not deprived of any benefit of employment and that she was reassigned to an “arguably less stressful” position that paid more.

In an internal investigation, the school district could not substantiate that Alzubi’s posts violated district policy or state law. District officials argued in court documents that she was reassigned due to safety concerns after the school received physical and sexual threats towards Alzubi and other staff members.

The judge’s decision said that the district’s interest in efficiency outweighs Alzubi’s interest in speaking on matters of public concern.

“Alzubi is not a scapegoat, nor has she lost her freedom of speech,” the court decision said. “Alzubi is within her right to post whatever she wants, but the District is also well within its right to put the overall safety of its community over a single individual’s professional preferences.”

Although her motion to be reinstated was denied, Alzubi’s lawsuit against the school district is still pending. The district has filed a motion seeking to dismiss the suit.

Judge Pittman wrote in his opinion that Alzubi’s claim her First Amendment rights were violated is unlikely to succeed, and he questioned whether the case is a good use of the court’s time and resources.

“The law does not convert every personnel decision into a federal case, nor every workplace disappointment into a constitutional violation,” Pittman wrote.

The district has named Lucio Rodriguez as interim principal of Western Hills.