Madrassa Principal Almontaser to Sue City Wants Her Job Back

The lady with the intifada Shirts is back. Dhaba Almontaser the first principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn is suing the Board of Education to get her job back. If you remember Ms Almontaser got in trouble for selling Intifada NYC shirts to her school kids, and when confronted with that fact by the NY Post she answered that there is nothing wrong with the word Intifada. Eventually she reigned for the good of the school ---but now she wants back.

Almontaser To Sue City Over Arab School Flap

BY ELIZABETH GREEN - Staff Reporter of the Sun

October 16, 2007

The founding principal of the city's Arabic-language school is fighting to get her job back.

Dhaba Almontaser said today she would file a lawsuit against the Department of Education, and possibly Mayor Bloomberg, accusing them of violating her First Amendment rights by forcing her out of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn.

"There are resignations and then there are resignations," a lawyer for Ms. Almontaser, Alan Levine, said. "This was a resignation that was in effect a termination."

He added: "She was in effect terminated because her public views were not acceptable to the Department of Education and to the mayor."

Mr. Levine said he might revoke the lawsuit, which he plans to file in the next few weeks, if the Department of Education allows Ms. Almontaser to be reinstated as principal at the Arabic-language academy, which she founded.

Ms. Almontaser submitted an application today to be the school's principal. But Mr. Levine said that a lawyer at the Department of Education has already told him the application will not be considered.

Ms. Almontaser, a longtime educator in New York City, had resigned from the position after defending T-shirts that read "Intifada NYC" to The New York Post. She described the T-shirts as "an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society…and shaking off oppression."

At the time she wrote in a letter that she was resigning in order to protect the school, where she said students and parents were beginning to feel frightened by a slew of attacks from opponents.

A Department of Education spokesman, David Cantor, said, "In August, Ms. Almontaser said she resigned as principal from Khalil Gibran International Academy to protect the stability of the school and give it ‘the full opportunity to flourish.' The Chancellor agreed with her decision, accepted her resignation, and now considers the matter closed."