Student reportedly booed by parents during graduation speech

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. (CNN Newsource) - A high school student says she was booed by parents while speaking at graduation.

17-year-old Huda Ayaz says she was in shock over what a group of parents said to her following a commencement speech she gave.

"I had adults coming at me aggressively, shouting at me," she said.

Wearing a hijab under her graduation cap, the Muslim-American student made a comment asking people to "Educate yourselves about international dilemmas including the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Uyghur Muslims. Families are continuously torn apart and real human lives are being lost but ignored."

Shortly thereafter, as she received her diploma, someone at the event said, "Why didn't you say anything about Hamas?"

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic militant group which is at war with Israel.

Ayaz also says she was also booed and told to go back to Pakistan.

"It was incredibly overwhelming. My entire family was shocked by how aggressive they were being and how they were coming towards us like that," she said.

Following the ceremony, the school principal sent a letter to families regarding Ayaz's speech, saying, "The comments were not part of the approved speech. I apologize that such a wonderful ceremony became marred for many people in attendance due to those remarks."

Ahmed Mohamed with the council on American-Islamic relations is now calling on the school to give a public apology and to set the record straight.

"The school has never supported Huda in this process," he said. "It is absolutely false to say that Huda deviated from her speech. That did not happen. It's incredible the way the school has reacted to this by throwing a 17-year-old under the bus."

The school principal said the graduation ceremony was not the appropriate place to make political comments, but also condemns parents who he says were being disrespectful.