Federal Panel Finds Bias in Ouster of Principal

[alp227]

Source: Andrea Elliott, The New York Times

A federal commission has determined that New York City’s Department of Education discriminated against the founding principal of an Arabic-language public school by forcing her to resign in 2007 following a storm of controversy driven by opponents of the school.

Acting on a complaint filed last year by the principal, Debbie Almontaser, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the department “succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel and a small segment of the public succeeded in imposing its prejudices on D.O.E. as an employer,” according to a letter issued by the commission on Tuesday.

The commission said that the department had discriminated against Ms. Almontaser, a Muslim of Yemeni descent, “on account of her race, religion and national origin.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/nyregion/13principal.html

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Further in the article, Elliott reports that a bunch of Islamophobes in NYC were railing against Almontaser through the organisation "Stop the Madrassa". I'm not kidding; read the article. Also, the rag New York Post published a sensationalised smear of Almontaser.

[mix]

1. Excellent news nt

[Scurrilous]

2. Great news.

:thumbsup:

[No Elephants]

3. Discrimination against groups of humans sucks, but....When did Yemeni or Arab become a race?

BTW, if one of the purposes of this school was supposed to reduce prejudice against Muslims, it's odd they named the school after a famous Christian Arab.

Khalil Gibran was the grandson of a Maronite priest and his sister purchased a Maronite monastery from the Carmelite Brothers for purposes of burying Khalil. It is now the Khalil Gibran Museum.

Born in an area of Ottoman Syria that is now in Lebanon, Gibran was a Syrian nationalist (as opposed to an Arab nationalist or a Lebanese nationalist), who rejoiced when Syria was free of Ottoman rule.

:shrug:

IMO, she was fired at least as much for the general cowardice of NYC in the face of public furor as she was for being Arab or Muslim, and also because of resentment over the very existence of the school. (She referred to the "Palestinian crisis," a linguistic red flag.)

She was replaced as principal of an "Arab-themed school" by someone who is not Muslim and does not speak Arabic, though. That is significant evidence of ethnic and religious bias (and of the desire of NYC to avoid further flack from the public.) The replacement principal is, btw, a Sabbath-observing Jew who scored higher than Almontaser in all respects, except for an essay question (also, no school management experience), so will the replacement also be able to claim religious bias if SHE is dismissed so that Altmontaser can be reinstated?

BTW. the EEOC recommended that NYC give her full back salary (to the extent not already paid), $300,000 for pain and suffering, $50,000 in attorneys' fees and reimbursement of litigation costs of $20,000.

This was an "Arab-themed" public school. Does anyone know if NYC has any similar schools for any other group? Hispanic themed? African-American themed? I realize Arabs in NYC face special problems since 911, but other groups face special problems, too.

[UpInArms]

4. "national origin" -- eom

[Malikshah]

5. This is a good first step. Bigotry, racism, and ignorance led to this first among

many long and unnecessary steps. 300K is a minimal request. Personally, I would hope she would go after each individual bigot and the NYPost and take them for everything they are worth. The mob mentality was disgusting. Those that defended it in a pseudo-intellectual way are getting off too easy. These folks should not be allowed in polite society, but rather pilloried mercilessly until they go off on an imposed hermitage in which they are forced to come face to face with their hatred.

Go Almontaser.