A federal judge ruled Wednesday afternoon that the city can move
forward with plans to appoint a permanent principal for the city’s
Arab-language school.The Khalil Gibran International Academy’s former principal, Debbie
Almontaser, had asked for an injunction which would have blocked the
city from moving forward with its plans."His honor took a very detailed analysis of all of the facts," said
James Lemonedes of NYC Law Department. "He considered everything very,
very well, and he gave a very detailed analysis of all the applicable
law."Almontaser claims the Department of Education violated her First
Amendment rights by forcing her to resign after she came under fire for
refusing to condemn a t-shirt with the word intifada on it.The judge said that statements made by government employees during
the course of their duties are not protected by the First Amendment. He
also said that it was reasonable to assume that putting her in the
position as principal of Khalil Gibran would make it hard for the
school to fulfill its duties.Her lawyers claim that Almontaser did and said nothing wrong.
"We have a woman who was told to speak to the press when she doesn’t
want to, she’s essentially mandated to speak to the press, when she
does, they don’t like what she says and they fire her," said her
attorney Arthur Levine. "No case stands for that proposition. I think
[the judge’s] interpretation of the Supreme Court decision is flat out
wrong
