From Lewis v. StopAntisemitism, decided Friday by Judge Adrienne Nelson (D. Or.):
Plaintiff is a professional musician who has worked as a private music teacher for over thirty years. During the 2023-2024 school year, plaintiff worked as an independent contractor at Valley Catholic Music School … [teaching] private violin and cello lessons to Valley Catholic students in practice rooms across the K-12 campus. Plaintiff also taught strings classes to students and non-student community members at Valley Catholic's summer camp.
"Prior to August 2024, [plaintiff] posted some of [her] opinions regarding certain geopolitical events, including but not limited to the war in Gaza and its occupation by Israeli armed forces, on [her] personal Facebook page." Plaintiff expressed these views "entirely outside of the summer music camp and the private lessons with [her] students at Valley Catholic" and did not share or discuss these opinions with her students.
StopAntisemitism is a national organization focused on highlighting threats to Jewish safety and civil rights. One of the ways it seeks to do this is by publishing recurring features "designed to inform the public about antisemitism expressed by public figures, educators, activists, and institutions," including a recurring feature entitled "Corrupting the Classroom." Through the "Corrupting the Classroom" feature, StopAntisemitism shares publicly accessible statements made by various educators, along with defendants' commentary on the statements. On August 21, 2024, StopAntisemitism shared on its X.com profile a "Corrupting the Classroom" feature focused on plaintiff. The feature, which was spread across several X posts, includes screenshots of statements plaintiff made on her public Facebook account, archived links to those Facebook posts, and defendants' statements about plaintiff and her posts.
Defendants' first posts begin by stating, "Warning to parents of students in Beaverton, OR. Valley Catholic High School's Sue Lewis is not just instructing in the music school—she's using her platform to spread vile antisemitic hate online." Following that is a bulleted list that states that plaintiff "claims Israel killed its own citizens during the October 7th massacre by Hamas terrorists[, ] calls upon Hamas to destroy Israel[, and] denounces the atrocities of Hamas against innocent Israeli victims." The next post begins, "Sue Lewis continues her antisemitic tirades." It is then followed by its own bulleted list, stating that plaintiff "denies the Jewish connection to Israel[; ] claims Jews control humanity, a dangerous trope[; and] labels Zionism (Jewish self-determination) a terror movement based on Jewish supremacy."
The post concludes by stating, "Students at [Valley Catholic] are in grave danger under Sue Lewis. Concerned? Email [email protected]." Below the final statement is an archived list of plaintiff's Facebook posts. Screenshots of AntiSemitism's posts are shown below:
Four of plaintiff's archived posts are particularly relevant to this motion. The first is a photograph, which plaintiff posted on February 16, 2024, that appears to show plaintiff wearing a black-and-white keffiyeh. The remaining four posts contain only text. The first post, which was shared by plaintiff on November 2, 2023, states, "Yeah these Hamas militants are going to wipe out Israel with their homemade bombs, small arms, hang gliders, grenades and slingshots. Be afraid, be very afraid." The second post, which plaintiff shared on October 22, 2018, states, "If Jewish people want their own state they shouldn't not put it on some else's state. Genocide is no way to make a state!"
The third post, which plaintiff shared on April 4, 2024, appears to show a dictionary-style definition of "Zionism" as "[a]n inherently violent & terroristic movement for colonizing Palestine through the theft of Palestinian land and the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians in order to create a Jewish-supremacist settler colony." The fourth and final post, which plaintiff shared on October 21, 2018, states, "Zionist Jews have managed to mentally condition humanity to accept and remain silent as they commit genocide in Palestine." … Following defendants' feature, plaintiff "received a torrent of hateful comments and direct messages, some of which were violent and threatening, from strangers who had read" the posts.
On August 21, 2024—the same day that StopAntisemitism shared its feature on plaintiff—Valley Catholic informed plaintiff that it would not be renewing her contract for the 2024-2025 school year….
