Virginia students from the Muslim Student Association are facing backlash over a series of videos that used kidnappings as a punchline — which their school district and parents slammed as “traumatizing” and “chilling” to the Jewish community.
Fairfax County Public Schools condemned the videos put out by students at Langley High School in McLean and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, which show members of the MSA pretending to kidnap classmates who refused to join the club.
Grabs of the since-deleted videos show MSA members at Langley putting a bag over a student’s head when he refused, lifting him up and tossing him into the trunk of a car, which quickly drives away.
The students then ask another group if they plan to join after seeing what happens to those who say no, prompting the classmates to laugh and commit to joining the club.
A similar video was put out by the MSA at Thomas Jefferson, which showed students putting a keffiyeh over a classmate’s head while putting another in a plastic bin before both are dragged away for refusing to join.
It’s unclear if the two clubs had coordinated to make the same type of video, but similar footage from students with no links to the MSA mocking the school club recruitment process has appeared on social media.
Fairfax officials said they were appalled by the videos, which they said had neither the approval of the schools nor the district.
“These videos depict violence, including kidnappings, with victims being hooded and placed in the trunk of a car, among other things,” the district told The Post.
“Acting out these types of violent acts is traumatizing for many of us to watch and, given world events, especially traumatizing to our Jewish students, staff, and community,” the district added, referencing the kidnappings carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
“FCPS would never consider these videos to be appropriate or acceptable content.”
The district warned that students found guilty of violating their school’s code “will be held accountable for their actions.”
Parents who saw the disturbing footage are “beyond outraged,” the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington told Fox 5.
“It’s almost chilling to see teenagers so lively acting out something that is so horrific,” CEO Guila Franklin Siegel said.
Several students from the Thomas Jefferson School were allegedly suspended as a result, prompting outrage from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
CAIR claimed that the video was no different from that of other clubs being posted online, aside from the race and religion of those punished, accusing the school of violating the students’ First Amendment rights.
“The video mirrors a popular trend of students promoting their events on campuses across the country,” the group said in a letter to the school. “It is apparent that any threat TJSHHT perceives from the video comes from racist tropes and stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs.”
The national branch of the MSA did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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