Yusra Awawdeh

A Palestinian flag is making waves at a Brooklyn high school.

An Arab-American student at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School said she was frisked by a school security guard this week after wearing a "Free Palestine" T-shirt and a Palestinian flag pin to class.

Yusra Awawdeh, 16, told the Daily News yesterday she was humiliated when the guard yanked her from Spanish class Tuesday and took her into a dean's office.

Yusra, an American of Palestinian descent, said a female school safety officer patted her down and told her to remove her shoes and socks while a female dean looked on.

The student said she was told to empty her pockets and that the guard also checked to see if she was hiding anything around her abdomen.

"I was really embarrassed," said Yusra, an 11th-grader at the Bensonhurst school. "They made me feel like I was a terrorist with weapons."

Yusra said the search occurred after pro-Palestinian stickers popped up in school hallways in the past week and school officials apparently believed she was responsible. She has had similar stickers on her binder for months, but denied posting any in the corridors.

Board of Education regulations say searches may be conducted only "if there is reasonable suspicion to believe that a student has violated ... the law or school rules and regulations." Strip searches are forbidden.

On Tuesday, the teen wore a pin with the red, green, white and black Palestinian flag and a traditional kaffiyeh, or scarf, around her shoulders.

After the search, the dean told Yusra that she can no longer wear the scarf or flag pin and must remove the stickers from her notebook, the student said.

"She said the only flag I can represent at the school is the American flag," said Yusra, who was born and raised in Sunset Park. "I am American but I also want to represent my heritage. I felt like they were trying to take something away from me. They never said I broke any rules."

Yusra did not identify the dean. School Principal Adel Vocel did not return a call seeking comment.

Department of Education spokesman David Chai said, "We are concerned and we'll look further into the matter."

The Chancellor's Regulations do not specifically address displaying non-American flags in public schools.

With Maki Becker