SJSU professor fired for pro-Palestinian activism sues university

San José State University professor Sang Hea Kil, fired in 2025 for pro-Palestinian activism, is suing the university for $10 million, alleging discrimination, retaliation, and First Amendment violations. The lawsuit follows an arbitrator's ruling that overturned her termination as excessive, reducing it to a one-month suspension with back pay. Kil's case is considered one of the first firings of a tenured professor at a public U.S. university linked to Gaza war protests.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...Sang Hea Kil, the San José State University professor who was fired for her pro-Palestinian activism in 2025, is suing the college, alleging the school discriminated and retaliated against her, subjected her to a “hostile work environment,” and violated her First Amendment rights. The civil rights lawsuit, which was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court in late May, but not announced until Monday, follows an arbitrator’s ruling last week that overturned Kil’s termination, deeming it an “excessive” punishment https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/24/san-jose-state-ordered-to-give-professor-back-her-job-after-firing-found-to-be-excessive/ for a professor of more than 17 years with no prior disciplinary action. The arbitrator said it should be reduced to a one-month unpaid suspension and awarded her back pay. The lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages and names as defendants the California State University board of trustees, SJSU president Cynthia Teniente-Matson, SJSU Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vincent Del Casino and former SJSU Interim Senior Associate Vice President for University Personnel, Jeanne Durr. “This is an incredible victory for free speech, academic freedom, student protest, freedom of assembly and pro-Palestine speech on campus and beyond,” Kil said at a press conference Tuesday outside SJSU’s Martin Luther King Jr. Library to announce her lawsuit and celebrate her reinstatement. “This is our victory. Let’s use this as a watershed moment to turn the tide against targeted repression on our campus and in this nation.” In a statement Tuesday, San José State University said the campus is aware of Kil’s lawsuit and “strongly disputes the allegations and will respond and defend itself through the judicial process.” On the arbitrator’s findings, the university said SJSU has consistently maintained that no employee “has been or would be subject to disciplinary action for lawfully exercising their First Amendment Rights, including protected speech or expression.” The school said the arbitrator “made no finding that Dr. Kil was disciplined because of their viewpoints or protected speech,” but rather, “found that discipline was warranted based on their actions, which were substantiated as unprofessional conduct, and reduced only the level of discipline imposed.” “Specifically, the arbitrator found that Dr. Kil engaged in unprofessional misconduct for, among other things, participating in efforts to intentionally disrupt a colleague’s classroom lecture and taking actions that clearly violated the University’s time, place, and manner policy. The report noted the “unprofessionalism of such conduct cannot reasonably be disputed,” the university said. A tenured professor of justice studies and former faculty adviser for Students for Justice in Palestine, Kil was placed on administrative leave in May 2024 and subsequently fired for “repeated violations of university policies https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/28/san-jose-state-professor-suspended-after-pro-palestinian-protest/ ” including directing and encouraging students to violate university policies, engaging in harassing and offensive conduct and comments directed toward colleagues, and targeting at least one colleague for engaging in their work duties by publicly identifying them and posting inflammatory comments and creating a risk of harm to them, according to the university. She is widely considered one of the first full-time, tenured professors to be fired from a public U.S. university https://www.insidehighered.com/news/deep-dives/2026/01/26/tenure-under-threat in connection with the student protests over the war in Gaza that have spread across college campuses nationwide. https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/01/gaza-war-protests-erupt-in-violence-chaos-at-some-u-s-campuses-but-remain-peaceful-in-bay-area/ In her lawsuit, Kil said she first came under fire from the university in April 2024. The school informed her she was being investigated for allegedly “disrupting the university’s business operations and encouraging students to do the same” during a February 19, 2024 campus protest she attended that opposed the appearance of Jewish studies professor, Jeffrey Blutinger, https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/23/san-jose-state-professor-suspended-after-altercation-during-gaza-protest/ who was speaking about the Israel-Hamas war. An altercation broke out and a another San Jose State professor, Johnathan Roth, was put on administrative leave for allegedly placing a hand on a student protestor during the confrontation. https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/23/san-jose-state-professor-suspended-after-altercation-during-gaza-protest/ “Undeterred” by the school’s “discriminatory attempt to intimidate her,” Kil said in her suit, she later attended a May 8, 2024 sit-in protest held at the university where she criticized the school’s “Time, Place and Manner Policy https://www.sjsu.edu/president/docs/Presidential-Directive-PD-2024-08-TPM.pdf ” — which sets rules on free speech activities on campus to “ensure the safety and wellbeing” of the school community — for infringing on free speech. The lawsuit said Kil also told students “it’s not too late” to do “an encampment” and later served as the spokesperson for the student’s encampment that began on May 13, 2024. Kil spent three nights at the ten-day student encampment, according to the suit. Kil was placed on administrative leave on May 24, 2024 for disrupting the school’s business operations and inciting students to violate university policies, the lawsuit said. She was terminated on June 30, 2025 for her alleged “disregard for university policies” including the school’s time, place and manner policy, according to the suit. The arbitrator’s June 2026 report https://newdev.sjsu.edu/zz-content-refresh-communications/docs/sangkilarbitrationaward signed.pdf said her grounds for termination were “unprofessional conduct” and “failure or refusal to perform the normal and reasonable duties of her position.'” Kil appealed the decision to a faculty hearing committee, which ultimately determined that the school’s decision to fire Kil was not justified but the university upheld her termination anyway, according to Kil’s lawsuit and the California Faculty Association. She subsequently sought arbitration, which was held in March, with the arbitrator overturning the university’s decision last week. Kil’s lawsuit also alleges that during the hearing, “SJSU personnel made Islamophobic comments” which she filed a federal Title VI Civil Rights complaint over in November 2025. She said she also found “racist graffiti threatening a mass shooting and referencing Asian, Jewish and Muslim people” on her office building that same month, which she reported to the school and perceived as a threat directed at her, according to the lawsuit. In her suit, Kil alleges the university discriminated against her and subjected her to “adverse employment actions” by suspending her, “conducting a sham investigation,” making false statements about her, failing to meaningfully address the racist graffiti directed at her, disregarding the faculty hearing’s findings and terminating her due to her “association with Palestinian, Middle Eastern, Arab, and Muslim individuals and her own gender, race and sexual orientation.” Kil also alleges that the university “knew and should have known” of the discrimination, harassment, hostile work environment and retaliation she suffered, but says the school failed to take action. Kil’s discrimination allegations center around the university’s treatment of SJSU professor Roth, who was placed on administrative leave and whom Kil alleges was not fired and instead was allowed to return to his teaching position before quietly retiring. “SJSU’s extreme treatment of Dr. Kil stands in sharp and alarming contrast to its treatment of other faculty who do not share her political views, identity, or association with Arab, Muslim and Palestinian individuals,” Kil’s lawsuit alleges. “For example, Dr. Johnathan Roth — a white, heterosexual, male professor at SJSU who publicly supports Israel and expresses anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim sentiment.” Several local community organizations spoke in support of Kil’s reinstatement and expressed concern over her “excessive” termination and its implications for freedom of speech. “When people who support Palestinian rights or who are Muslim or of the Islamic faith speak out, they face extreme punishments,” said Sean Allen, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP. “And when those same individuals are victims of harm, the response from our institutions is too often slow, dismissive, or absent altogether. We saw that double standard play out on this very campus.”