I feel really bad for Debbie Almontaser, founding principal of the Kahlil Gibran International Academy, who was removed before the school even opened.

On Thursday, her legal appeal to return to her job at the school she founded was denied. It’s crazy. She founded the school and was the visionary behind it. Then she defended a t-shirt that said Intifada. She said something that was deemed inappropriate by the DOE to the New York Post or News and was promptly fired.

Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

Here’s the story from New York 1:

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the former principal of a Brooklyn Arabic school can not force the city to give her another chance to get her job back.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed with a lower court that Debbie Almontaser was acting in her official capacity when she refused to condemn a shirt with the Arabic phrase “intifada” on it.

Almontaser sued saying she was forced to resign in August and that her First Amendment rights were denied.

Her lawyer says they haven’t decided whether they’ll appeal again.

A new principal for the Khalil Gibran International Academy was hired in January.