[R-G] Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

--- On Thu, 5/1/08, Suzanne de Kuyper <suzannedk at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Suzanne de Kuyper <suzannedk at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [R-G] Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School
> To: "suzanne  de Kuyper" <suzannedk at yahoo.com>
> Date: Thursday, May 1, 2008, 6:54 PM
> Daniel Pipes. a super Mc Carthy Medici of the 21st century,
> spilling over
> with politicaly correct Muslm hate, was put up for
> appointment by Bush and
> Cheney et al and the House and the Senate, Republican
> controlled shot him
> down so, Bush gave him a recess appointment for one year
> and then created a
> specail watchdog group for Pipes tp lead ..Pipes was lead
> attack dog for the
> destruction of this woman's school, life and
> reputation.  Few or none ever
> show a bright light on these well 'respected'
> hatemongers who are useful in
> that they seem to believe the propaganda of the last six
> years
> ..paasionately.  Media should shine bright lights on these
> now pivitol
> guys.....their vtrol seems to be cut just so that the lack
> of habeous corpus
> looks like a chic idea, just in time.
> Suzanne de Kuyper
> 
> On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 3:50 PM, Sid Shniad
> <shniad at sfu.ca> wrote:
> 
> >
> >  
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/nyregion/28school.html?ex=1210046400
> >   &en=eb31e0ad46ef2191&ei=5070&emc=eta1
> >   New York Times April 28, 2008
> >   BATTLE IN BROOKLYN | A PRINCIPALS RISE AND FALL
> >   Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School
> >   By Andrea Elliott
> >   Debbie Almontaser dreamed of starting a public
> school like no other in
> >   New York City. Children of Arab descent would join
> students of other
> >   ethnicities, learning Arabic together. By
> graduation, they would be
> >   fluent in the language and groomed for the countrys
> elite colleges.
> >   They would be ready, in Ms. Almontasers words, to
> become ambassadors
> >   of peace and hope.
> >   Things have not gone according to plan. Only
> one-fifth of the 60
> >   students at the Khalil Gibran International Academy
> are Arab-American.
> >   Since the school opened in Brooklyn last fall,
> children have been
> >   suspended for carrying weapons, repeatedly gotten
> into fights and
> >   taunted an Arabic teacher by calling her a
> terrorist, staff members
> >   and students said in interviews.
> >   The academys troubles reach well beyond its cramped
> corridors in
> >   Boerum Hill. The schools creation provoked a
> controversy so incendiary
> >   that Ms. Almontaser stepped down as the founding
> principal just weeks
> >   before classes began last September. Ms. Almontaser,
> a teacher by
> >   training and an activist who had carefully built
> ties with Christians
> >   and Jews, said she was forced to resign by the
> mayors office following
> >   a campaign that pitted her against a chorus of
> critics who claimed she
> >   had a militant Islamic agenda.
> >   In newspaper articles and Internet postings, on
> television and talk
> >   radio, Ms. Almontaser was branded a radical, a
> jihadist and a 9/11
> >   denier. She stood accused of harboring unpatriotic
> leanings and of
> >   secretly planning to proselytize her students.
> Despite Ms. Almontasers
> >   longstanding reputation as a Muslim moderate, her
> critics quickly
> >   succeeded in recasting her image.
> >   The conflict tapped into a well of post-9/11
> anxieties. But Ms.
> >   Almontasers downfall was not merely the result of a
> spontaneous outcry
> >   by concerned parents and neighborhood activists. It
> was also the work
> >   of a growing and organized movement to stop Muslim
> citizens who are
> >   seeking an expanded role in American public life.
> The fight against
> >   the school, participants in the effort say, was only
> an early skirmish
> >   in a broader, national struggle.
> >   Its a battle thats really just begun, said Daniel
> Pipes, who directs a
> >   conservative research group, the Middle East Forum,
> and helped lead
> >   the charge against Ms. Almontaser and the school.
> >   In the aftermath of Sept. 11, critics of radical
> Islam focused largely
> >   on terrorism, scrutinizing Muslim-American charities
> or asserting
> >   links between Muslim organizations and violent
> groups like Hamas. But
> >   as the authorities have stepped up the war on
> terror, those critics
> >   have shifted their gaze to a new frontier, what they
> describe as
> >   law-abiding Muslim-Americans who are imposing their
> religious values
> >   in the public domain.
> >   Mr. Pipes and others reel off a list of examples:
> Muslim cabdrivers in
> >   Minneapolis who have refused to take passengers
> carrying liquor;
> >   municipal pools and a gym at Harvard that have
> adopted female-only
> >   hours to accommodate Muslim women; candidates for
> office who are
> >   suspected of supporting political Islam; and banks
> that are offering
> >   financial products compliant with sharia, the
> Islamic code of law.
> >   The danger, Mr. Pipes says, is that the United
> States stands to become
> >   another England or France, a place where Muslims are
> balkanized and
> >   ultimately threaten to impose sharia.
> >   It is hard to see how violence, how terrorism will
> lead to the
> >   implementation of sharia, Mr. Pipes said. It is much
> easier to see
> >   how, working through the system the school system,
> the media, the
> >   religious organizations, the government, businesses
> and the like you
> >   can promote radical Islam.
> >   Mr. Pipes refers to this new enemy as the lawful
> Islamists.
> >   They are carrying out a soft jihad, said Jeffrey
> Wiesenfeld, a trustee
> >   of the City University of New York and a vocal
> opponent of the Khalil
> >   Gibran school.
> >   Muslim leaders, academics and others see the drive
> against the school
> >   as the latest in a series of discriminatory attacks
> intended to
> >   distort the truth and play on Americans fear of
> terrorism. They say
> >   the campaign is also part of a wider effort to
> silence critics of
> >   Washingtons policy on Israel and the Middle East.
> >   This is a political, ideological agenda, said John
> Esposito, a
> >   professor of international affairs and Islamic
> studies at Georgetown
> >   University who has been a focus of Mr. Pipess
> scrutiny. Its an agenda
> >   to paint Islam, not just extremists, as a major
> problem.
> >   That portrait, Muslim and Arab advocates contend, is
> rife with a bias
> >   that would never be tolerated were it directed at
> other ethnic or
> >   religious groups. And if Ms. Almontasers story is
> any indication, they
> >   say, the message of her critics wields great power.
> >   Ms. Almontaser watched city officials and some of
> her closest Jewish
> >   allies distance themselves from her as the
> controversy reached its
> >   peak. She was ultimately felled by an article in The
> New York Post
> >   that said she had downplayed the significance of
> T-shirts bearing the
> >   slogan Intifada NYC.
> >   Last month, federal judges issued a ruling related
> to a lawsuit
> >   brought by Ms. Almontaser to regain her job stating
> that her words
> >   were inaccurately reported by The Post and then
> misconstrued by the
> >   press.
> >   While city officials and the Education Department
> declined to comment
> >   about Ms. Almontaser because of the lawsuit, a
> lawyer for the city
> >   said she had not been forced to resign.
> >   In her first interview since stepping down, Ms.
> Almontaser said that
> >   education officials had pressured her to speak to
> The Post and had
> >   monitored the conversation. After the article was
> published, she said,
> >   the department issued a written apology in her name,
> without her
> >   approval.
> >   I kept saying I wanted to set the record straight,
> said Ms.
> >   Almontaser, 40. And they kept telling me, You cant
> undo what was done.
> >   A Call to Lead
> >   In April 2005, Debbie Almontaser got a telephone
> call that would
> >   change her life. The man on the line, Adam Rubin,
> worked for a
> >   nonprofit organization, New Visions for Public
> Schools. He was
> >   exploring whether to help the city create a public
> school that would
> >   teach Arabic. The group already had seed money a
> $400,000 grant from
> >   the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation but needed
> the right person to
> >   help lead the venture.
> >   Everywhere Mr. Rubin went from the mayors office to
> a falafel stand in
> >   Brooklyn people mentioned Ms. Almontaser. She was a
> teacher, a native
> >   Arabic speaker and arguably the citys most visible
> Arab-American
> >   woman.
> >   After 9/11, Education Department officials had
> enlisted Ms. Almontaser
> >   to hold workshops on cultural sensitivity for
> schoolchildren. She
> >   spread the message that Islam was a peaceful
> religion. She told of how
> >   her own son had served as a National Guardsman in
> the clearing effort
> >   at ground zero. She was soon attending interfaith
> seminars,
> >   befriending rabbis and priests. Mayor Michael R.
> Bloomberg honored her
> >   publicly. She became a ready commentator for the
> media, prompting some
> >   Muslims to joke that she was the citys talking
> hijabi.
> >   In fact, it had taken a long time for Ms. Almontaser
> to embrace the
> >   hijab, or head scarf. Born in Yemen, she was 3 when
> she moved with her
> >   family to Buffalo. Her parents encouraged her to
> blend in. She called
> >   herself Debbie rather than Dhabah, her given name.
> She began wearing a
> >   veil in her 20s, as a Brooklyn mother whose life
> revolved around PTA
> >   meetings and Boy Scout trips. She took to riding on
> the back of her
> >   husbands motorcycle, her head scarf tucked beneath a
> black helmet. She
> >   got used to the stares and learned to be
> unapologetic.
> >   In the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, she
> offered other Muslim
> >   women the lessons she had learned: The only way to
> claim this as your
> >   country is to continue on with your life here, she
> recalled telling
> >   them.
> >   For years, Ms. Almontaser had hoped to become a
> principal. But soon
> >   after joining hands with New Visions, she faced her
> first challenge.
> >   To administer the Gates grant, the school needed a
> community partner.
> >   Two groups wanted the job: a secular Arab-American
> social services
> >   agency and a Muslim-led organization that runs
> Al-Noor School, a
> >   private Islamic establishment in Sunset Park,
> Brooklyn.
> >   Ms. Almontaser said she tried to remain neutral as
> discord erupted
> >   between the two groups. Quietly, though, she worried
> that if an
> >   organization linked to a private Islamic school took
> the lead, the
> >   city would never approve the project, despite the
> groups pledge to
> >   keep religion out of the curriculum.
> >   Ultimately, a steering committee led by Ms.
> Almontaser voted in favor
> >   of the social services agency. Leaders of the Muslim
> group walked away
> >   feeling disrespected and distrustful of her, several
> of the groups
> >   members said in interviews. It was a rupture that
> would come back to
> >   haunt Ms. Almontaser.
> >   As preparations moved forward, a design team
> assembled by Ms.
> >   Almontaser named the school after the Lebanese
> Christian poet and
> >   pacifist Khalil Gibran. A Palestinian immigrant had
> suggested the
> >   name, hoping it would deflect any concerns that the
> school carried a
> >   Muslim orientation.
> >   In February 2007, the Department of Education
> announced that the
> >   school had been approved. It would eventually
> encompass grades 6
> >   through 12, teach half of its classes in Arabic and
> be among 67
> >   schools in the city that offer programs in both
> English and another
> >   language, like Russian, Spanish and Chinese. Ms.
> Almontaser designed a
> >   recruitment brochure to attract the schools first
> class of sixth
> >   graders.
> >   The leaflet cited the words of Mr. Gibran: In
> understanding, all walls
> >   shall fall down.
> >   Opposition Forms
> >   Irene Alter, a peppy, retired Queens schoolteacher,
> was sitting at her
> >   computer one morning that February when she read an
> article in The New
> >   York Times about the Khalil Gibran school, she said.
> A series of
> >   questions flooded her head.
> >   Which courses would be taught in Arabic? How would
> Israel be treated
> >   in the study of Middle Eastern history? Then in
> April, she read an
> >   op-ed article by Mr. Pipes in The New York Sun.
> >   Conceptually, such a school could be marvelous, Mr.
> Pipes wrote, but
> >   in practice, it was certain to be problematic.
> Arabic-language
> >   instruction is inevitably laden with Pan-Arabist and
> Islamist baggage,
> >   he wrote, referring to the school as a madrassa,
> which means school in
> >   Arabic but, in the West, carries the implication of
> Islamic teaching.
> >   Given how little Mr. Pipes knew about the school at
> the time, the word
> >   was a bit of a stretch, he said in a recent
> interview. He defended its
> >   use as a way to get attention for the cause. It got
> the attention of
> >   Ms. Alter, 60, who contacted Mr. Pipes and, with his
> encouragement,
> >   helped form a grass-roots organization in response
> to the school
> >   project. Mr. Pipes joined the advisory board of the
> group, which
> >   called itself the Stop the Madrassa Coalition.
> >   Mr. Pipes, 58, has emerged as a divisive figure in
> the post-9/11 era.
> >   An author of 12 books who has a doctorate in history
> from Harvard, he
> >   has made a career out of studying and critiquing
> Islam. His research
> >   group, which he established in downtown Philadelphia
> in the early
> >   1990s, seeks to define and promote American
> interests in the Middle
> >   East, according to its Web site.
> >   Among his supporters, Mr. Pipes enjoys a heroic
> status; among his
> >   detractors, he is reviled. Those sharply divergent
> views reflect the
> >   passions that infuse Middle Eastern politics,
> arguably nowhere in the
> >   United States more than in New York City.
> >   Mr. Pipes is perhaps best known for Campus Watch, a
> national
> >   initiative he created to scrutinize Middle Eastern
> programs at
> >   colleges and universities. The drive has accused
> professors of, among
> >   other things, being soft on militant Islam and
> sympathetic to the
> >   Palestinian cause. It has stirred widespread
> controversy and, in some
> >   cases, may have undermined professors bids for
> tenure.
> >   Mr. Pipes was joined in the monitoring effort by
> other self-declared
> >   watchdogs of militant Islam. Their Web sites are
> often linked to one
> >   another and their messages interwoven. One critic,
> David Horowitz,
> >   founded Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a campaign
> aimed at college
> >   campuses. He noted in an interview that monitors of
> radical Islam have
> >   increasingly trained their sights on nonviolent
> Muslim-Americans.
> >   They dont throw bombs, but they create political
> cover for ideological
> >   support of this jihadi movement, he said.
> >   Mr. Pipes places Muslims in three categories, he
> said: those who are
> >   violent, those who are moderate and those in the
> middle. It is this
> >   middle group, he argued, that now poses the greatest
> threat to
> >   American values.
> >   Are these people who are not using violence but who
> are not fully
> >   enthusiastic about this country and its mores, its
> culture are they on
> >   our side or are they on the other side? he asked.
> >   Ms. Almontaser never considered herself
> unenthusiastic about America,
> >   she said. But as the conflict over the Khalil Gibran
> school
> >   intensified, she came to be seen by many through Mr.
> Pipess lens. In
> >   his article in The Sun, he referred to Ms.
> Almontaser by her birth
> >   name, Dhabah, and called her views extremist. He
> cited an article in
> >   which she was quoted as saying about 9/11, I dont
> recognize the people
> >   who committed the attacks as either Arabs or
> Muslims. (As The Jewish
> >   Week later reported, Mr. Pipes left out the second
> half of the quote:
> >   Those people who did it have stolen my identity as
> an Arab and have
> >   stolen my religion.)
> >   The Stop the Madrassa Coalition focused primarily on
> Ms. Almontaser as
> >   a strategy, said Mr. Pipes, because the group could
> get little
> >   information about the school itself. The coalition
> quickly publicized
> >   several discoveries. Ms. Almontaser had accepted an
> award from the
> >   Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national
> Muslim organization
> >   that critics claim has ties to terrorist groups (an
> assertion the
> >   group adamantly denies). In news articles, Ms.
> Almontaser had been
> >   critical of American foreign policy and police
> tactics in fighting
> >   terrorism. She also gave $2,000 to Representative
> Cynthia A. McKinney
> >   of Georgia, whom Mr. Pipes and others have
> characterized as an
> >   Islamist sympathizer. (Ms. McKinney, who is no
> longer in office and
> >   did not respond to requests for an interview, has
> had a strong
> >   following among Arab-Americans in part because of
> her criticism of the
> >   Patriot Act.)
> >   Critics of the Madrassa Coalition say its tactics
> are typical of
> >   campaigns singling out Muslims: They lean heavily on
> guilt by
> >   association. The nuances of the claims against Ms.
> Almontaser were
> >   lost as the controversy lit up the blogosphere, said
> Chip Berlet, a
> >   senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a
> liberal
> >   organization outside Boston that studies the
> political right. One Web
> >   site, MilitantIslamMonitor.org, displayed
> photographs of Ms.
> >   Almontaser wearing her hijab in different styles,
> suggesting that she
> >   had undergone a public relations makeover to
> disguise her Islamist
> >   agenda. The criticism of Ms. Almontaser and the
> school spread to
> >   newspapers, eliciting negative editorials in The
> Daily News and The
> >   New York Sun.
> >   Ms. Almontaser was stunned, she said: Her school
> would touch upon
> >   religion only in its global studies class, following
> the same
> >   curriculum as all New York public schools. She tried
> to keep her head
> >   down, she said, and set out to recruit students,
> half of whom she
> >   hoped would be Arab. But opposition to the school
> mounted after
> >   critics learned that its advisory council included
> three imams (along
> >   with rabbis and priests), that there would be an
> internship for
> >   students with a Muslim lawyers association and that
> the proposal for
> >   the school suggested it might offer halal food. (The
> advisory council
> >   never met and has since been dismantled, and the
> school does not offer
> >   halal food, Education Department officials said.)
> >   As the attacks continued, Joel Levy of the New York
> chapter of the
> >   Anti-Defamation League published a letter defending
> Ms. Almontaser in
> >   The Sun. Mr. Levy made reference to the possibility
> that his
> >   organization would provide anti-bias training to Ms.
> Almontasers
> >   staff.
> >   The letter caused a stir among some Arab-Americans,
> who were bothered
> >   by Ms. Almontasers ties to Jewish groups. In late
> June, Aramica, an
> >   Arabic and English newspaper based in Brooklyn, ran
> a cover story with
> >   the headline Zionist Organization Supports Gibran
> School Principal,
> >   focusing on the link between Ms. Almontasers school
> and the
> >   Anti-Defamation League.
> >   In just five months, Ms. Almontasers image had been
> transformed. She
> >   was rendered a radical Muslim by one group and a
> sellout by another.
> >   T-Shirts, and a Resignation
> >   At first, some city officials rallied to Ms.
> Almontasers side. Among
> >   them was David Cantor, the chief spokesman for the
> Department of
> >   Education, who wrote in an e-mail message to the
> editor of The New
> >   York Sun, Seth Lipsky: I wont allow Dan Pipes a free
> pass to smear
> >   Debbie Almontaser as an Islamist proselytizer who
> denies Muslim
> >   involvement in 9/11. It is a false picture and an
> ugly effort.
> >   But behind closed doors, department officials were
> nervous, Ms.
> >   Almontaser recalled. With her help, she said, they
> drafted a
> >   confidential memo of talking points to review with
> reporters: the
> >   school was nonreligious, for example, and Ms.
> Almontaser was a
> >   multicultural specialist and diversity consultant.
> >   The Stop the Madrassa Coalition pressed its
> campaign. In July, one of
> >   its members, Pamela Hall, made a discovery that
> would elevate the
> >   controversy. At an Arab-American festival in
> Brooklyn, she spotted
> >   T-shirts on a table bearing the words Intifada NYC.
> The organization
> >   distributing them, Arab Women Active in the Arts and
> Media, trains
> >   young women in community organizing and media
> production. The group
> >   sometimes uses the office of a Yemeni-American
> association in Bay
> >   Ridge, Brooklyn. Ms. Almontaser sits on the
> associations board.
> >   Ms. Hall took a photograph, and a few weeks later,
> the coalition
> >   announced on its blog that Ms. Almontaser was linked
> to the T-shirts.
> >   On Aug. 3, Ms. Almontaser received a call from
> Melody Meyer, a
> >   spokeswoman for the Education Department. What does
> Intifada NYC mean?
> >   Ms. Almontaser recalled Ms. Meyer asking.
> >   Ms. Almontaser was stumped, she said. She knew of
> the group. But she
> >   had never heard about the T-shirts, she said she
> told Ms. Meyer,
> >   adding that intifada meant uprising and was linked
> to the Arab-Israeli
> >   conflict.
> >   Most reporters lost interest in the T-shirts after
> Ms. Meyer explained
> >   that neither Ms. Almontaser nor the school was
> linked to them, but The
> >   Post persisted. Ms. Almontaser said Ms. Meyer and
> Mr. Cantor pressured
> >   her to respond to the newspaper in an interview.
> >   I said, Wait a minute, recalled Ms. Almontaser, who
> was critical of
> >   The Posts coverage of Arabs and Muslims. I am not
> comfortable doing
> >   the interview.
> >   Ms. Meyer promised to monitor the conversation, Ms.
> Almontaser said,
> >   and Mr. Cantor instructed her not to be apologetic
> about the T-shirts.
> >   While both Ms. Meyer and Mr. Cantor said they could
> not comment on the
> >   case, a city lawyer said that Ms. Almontaser was
> told to avoid
> >   discussing the T-shirts and intifada altogether, and
> was never
> >   pressured to speak to The Post.
> >   During the Post interview, Ms. Almontaser said, she
> told the reporter,
> >   Chuck Bennett, that the Arab womens organization was
> not connected to
> >   her or the school, and that she would never be
> affiliated with any
> >   group that condoned violence. Then Mr. Bennett asked
> her for the
> >   origins of the word intifada, she said.
> >   The educator in me responded, Ms. Almontaser said.
> She explained, with
> >   Ms. Meyer listening in on the three-way phone call,
> that the root of
> >   the word means shaking off. Ms. Almontaser then
> offered what she
> >   described as a lengthy explanation about the
> evolution of the word and
> >   the negative connotation it had developed because of
> the Arab-Israeli
> >   struggle.
> >   The thought went across my mind to be extremely
> careful with my words
> >   not to offend the Jewish community and not to offend
> the Arab-American
> >   community, she said. I was feeling pressure from all
> sides.
> >   Although Ms. Almontaser said she never spoke to the
> reporter about the
> >   T-shirts, she defended the girls in the organization
> because she
> >   believed that the reporter was set on vilifying
> innocent teenagers.
> >   After the reporter hung up, Ms. Almontaser recalled,
> Ms. Meyer told
> >   her, Good job.
> >   The next day, The Post ran the article under the
> headline City
> >   Principal Is Revolting Tied to Intifada NYC Shirts.
> The article quoted
> >   Ms. Almontaser as saying that the girls in the
> organization were
> >   shaking off oppression, words that The Post,
> according to a ruling by
> >   federal appellate judges, attributed to Ms.
> Almontaser incorrectly and
> >   misleadingly.
> >   Complaints about Ms. Almontaser began pouring into
> the Education
> >   Department, and Mr. Cantor informed her that an
> apology would be
> >   issued in her name. Ms. Almontaser objected, she
> said, and asked that
> >   the department clarify her comments to The Post,
> which she said were
> >   distorted, rather than apologize.
> >   Mr. Cantor insisted on an apology, she said, and
> e-mailed her the
> >   proposed wording. The first sentence was not
> negotiable, she recalled
> >   him telling her. The apology began: The use of the
> word intifada is
> >   completely inappropriate as a T-shirt slogan for
> teenagers. I regret
> >   suggesting otherwise. Ms. Almontaser responded in an
> e-mail message
> >   that Mr. Cantor should change the latter sentence to
> I regret my
> >   response was interpreted as suggesting otherwise.
> >   The press office issued the original apology.
> Pressure soon mounted
> >   for Ms. Almontaser to resign. Randi Weingarten, the
> head of the
> >   teachers union, published a letter in The Post
> criticizing Ms.
> >   Almontaser for not denouncing ideas tied to
> violence. On Aug. 9,
> >   Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott asked Ms. Almontaser
> to step down, she
> >   said. The mayor wants your resignation by 8 a.m.
> tomorrow so he can
> >   announce it on his radio show, Ms. Almontaser
> recalled Mr. Walcott
> >   saying.
> >   She said he promised her that in exchange for her
> resignation, the
> >   school would still open, and she would remain
> employed. She resigned
> >   the next day, taking an administrative job at the
> Education
> >   Department. She kept her principals salary of
> $120,000.
> >   On his radio program, Mayor Bloomberg announced that
> Ms. Almontaser
> >   had submitted her resignation, which was nice of her
> to do.
> >   Shes certainly not a terrorist, he said, adding that
> she was not all
> >   that media savvy maybe.
> >   Three days later, Ms. Almontaser was replaced by an
> interim principal,
> >   Danielle Salzberg, who is Jewish and speaks no
> Arabic.
> >   Chaos in a New School
> >   On Sept. 4, the Khalil Gibran International Academy
> opened its doors
> >   at 345 Dean Street as parents ushered their children
> past a throng of
> >   reporters, photographers and television crews.
> >   Chaos soon erupted inside. Students cut classes and
> got into fights
> >   with little consequence, said staff members, parents
> and students. At
> >   least 12 of the 60 students showed signs of
> behavioral problems or
> >   learning disabilities, said Leslie Kahn, a licensed
> social worker and
> >   counselor who was employed at the school until
> January. (Education
> >   Department officials, who denied repeated requests
> by The Times to
> >   visit the school, said there are currently six
> special-needs students
> >   there.)
> >   Something is flying through the air, every class,
> every day, Sean R.
> >   Grogan, a science teacher at the school, said in an
> interview. Kids
> >   bang on the partitions, yell and scream, curse and
> swear. Its out of
> >   control.
> >   Physical altercations are frequent, Mr. Grogan and
> others said, with
> >   Arab students and teachers the target of ethnic
> slurs. I just dont
> >   feel safe, said an Arab-American student, 11, who
> will not return to
> >   the school next year.
> >   In the first days after Ms. Almontaser resigned, she
> felt numb, she
> >   said. Her support among Arab-Muslims remained
> uneven. Had she not
> >   alienated some who wanted more of a role in the
> schools creation, the
> >   whole community would have stood behind her, said
> Wael Mousfar,
> >   president of the Arab Muslim American Federation. A
> lot of our kids
> >   would be part of that school.
> >   Ms. Almontaser soon found herself flanked by a new
> group of
> >   supporters, including Jewish and Muslim activists,
> who began lobbying
> >   for her to be reinstated as the schools principal.
> On Oct. 16, Ms.
> >   Almontaser announced that she was suing the
> Education Department and
> >   the mayor. She claimed that her First Amendment
> rights had been
> >   violated because she was forced to resign after she
> was quoted as
> >   saying something controversial.
> >   She requested that the city be prevented from hiring
> a permanent
> >   principal until her case was resolved. A judge
> rejected the request,
> >   and Ms. Almontaser appealed. In March, a federal
> appeals court upheld
> >   the ruling, but the judges were sharply critical of
> the citys handling
> >   of Ms. Almontasers case.
> >   This was a situation where she was subject to
> sanction not for
> >   anything she said, not for anything she did, but
> because a newspaper
> >   reporter twisted what she said and the result of it
> was negative press
> >   for the city and the Board of Ed, Judge Jon O.
> Newman told a city
> >   lawyer at a hearing in February.
> >   Ms. Almontasers case will proceed in the Federal
> District Court in
> >   Manhattan.
> >   The Stop the Madrassa Coalition continues to protest
> the school. The
> >   group sued the Department of Education in October,
> requesting detailed
> >   information about the schools creation, faculty and
> curriculum. While
> >   the department has handed over thousands of records,
> the coalitions
> >   lawyer said the documents leave many questions
> unanswered, including
> >   which textbooks the school is using to teach Arabic.
> A department
> >   spokeswoman said that a list of textbooks selected
> for the school was
> >   sent to the lawyer last fall.
> >   The coalition has also broadened the reach of its
> campaign. Some
> >   members have joined with the Center for Policy
> Research in American
> >   Education, a new organization that will research the
> influence of
> >   radical Islam on public schools around the country.
> >   In recent weeks, conditions at the Khalil Gibran
> school have improved,
> >   said several students and staff members. Holly Anne
> Reichert, who was
> >   appointed as the permanent principal in January,
> said in an interview
> >   that she had reduced some of the disruptive behavior
> by minimizing
> >   class sizes. She added that the media attention had
> led to a chaotic
> >   experience for students. Adults have created this,
> and children are
> >   the ones who have had to endure, she said.
> >   The school will move to a larger space in Fort
> Greene, Brooklyn, by
> >   next fall.
> >   Ms. Almontaser still attends interfaith dinners and
> awards ceremonies.
> >   During the day, she works for the citys Office of
> School and Youth
> >   Development. Part of her job entails evaluating
> other schools.
> >   In an odd twist of fate, she was sent to the Bronx
> last fall to review
> >   a small, innovative school that had opened the same
> month as Khalil
> >   Gibran. It also taught a foreign language: Spanish.
> The students
> >   seemed to be thriving. As Ms. Almontaser walked the
> hallways, she was
> >   shaken, she said.
> >   It wasnt that I was envious that her dream
> materialized, said Ms.
> >   Almontaser, referring to the principal. It was
> seeing her sixth
> >   graders, her teachers, and seeing that she did it.
> And I didnt get a
> >   chance.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rad-Green mailing list
> > Rad-Green at lists.econ.utah.edu
> > To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
> > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Rad-Green mailing list
> Rad-Green at lists.econ.utah.edu
> To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ