KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A temporary restraining order telling Portage Northern High School to move its graduation date to accommodate a Jewish student will remain in effect while the student’s lawsuit is taken up in federal court.

Portage Northern senior Minaleah Koffron filed her lawsuit Monday and a judge granted the temporary order on Wednesday requiring the graduation date to change. The defendants filed a request Thursday to move the case from Kalamazoo County Circuit Court to federal court because Koffron alleged violations of her constitutional rights. A hearing on the matter was held Friday, at which point the case was moved and the temporary order extended.

Portage Northern’s graduation was scheduled for May 26. Koffron said because that is the Jewish holy day of Shavuot, her religious observances prevent her from attending. Koffron’s lawsuit alleged there were also previous instances in which the school scheduled important events on Jewish holidays, even though she said her parents routinely provided a list of those dates.

Included in court records is a March 17 letter to Portage Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bielang in which Koffron argued she and her younger brother, also a Portage student, had been treated as “lesser” than their Christian classmates.

“You have already taken so many experiences from me, and so many experiences from the observant Jews who have come before my time at Portage Northern,” she wrote. “Even if the decision to schedule graduation on a Jewish holy day was an oversight, the decision to keep it is not.”

Her lawsuit asks the court to force the district to move graduation, not repeat similar scheduling and award Koffron at least $25,000 in damages.

Koffron’s attorneys have asked that that parts of the case alleging violations of state law be moved back to the Kalamazoo County Circuit Court. The district has until Tuesday to reply to that motion. The first federal court hearing is scheduled for April 20.