An Inconvenient Woman

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last week found that the Department of Education improperly forced out the Principal of an Arabic-language school three years ago, and in the process “succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel.”

The panel found that DOE had been stampeded into pressuring Debbie Almontaser to resign her post as the head and founder of the Khalil Gibran International Academy as the price for allowing the school to open. Its hand was forced by a conservative coalition which claimed that she wanted the school to promote a militant Islamic agenda and used as evidence a New York Post article in which she downplayed the significance of t-shirts bearing the words “Intifada NYC.”

The EEOC noted that a Federal Judge two years ago found that the Post article quoted Ms. Almontaser “incorrectly and misleadingly.”

DOE had reason to know that this had occurred at the time that the article created the furor: it had a media staffer present when Ms. Almontaser gave the interview to the Post reporter. Indeed, she cooperated with the paper only because DOE insisted on it.

There is no doubt that Ms. Almontaser could have better handled the question about the t-shirts, created by Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media. She later did so when she called the message on them “completely inappropriate.”

But her initial soft response did not warrant her ouster. DOE had the ammunition to demand that the Post publish a correction for distorting her remarks to make it appear that she was endorsing the t-shirt’s sentiments, yet instead let itself be bullied into leaning on her. The reason why is obvious: the one party involved in the controversy that has actually proved willing and able to launch a jihad against those who antagonize it is New York’s most-belligerent tabloid.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg decided it was easier to push aside Ms. Almontaser than risk weeks or months of editorial criticism by the Post. We know this because during a court hearing several months after Ms. Almontaser was forced to resign as Principal, city attorneys agreed with her lawyers that the Post had inaccurately quoted her.

Mr. Bloomberg, who made his fortune in the media business, had previously shown his inclinations on First Amendment issues during the 2004 Republican Convention, when he defended police tactics in locking up peaceful protesters that later led to virtually every case brought being dismissed, either by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office or in court. Free speech finished a poor second in his mind to making sure that President Bush and the Republican National Committee viewed New York as a good host.

That bottom-line thinking clearly prevailed again in Ms. Almontaser’s case. And it is probably not a coincidence that the reporter who misrepresented her remarks later was provided with misleading information by the Bloomberg administration about the history of the special pension-related payments to cops and firefighters known as the Variable Supplements Funds for an extensive article last year when the administration was trying to scale down pensions for future workers. Journalists who aren’t thorough or conscientious enough to get things right can be useful tools.

The hypocrisy of the city’s position throughout this case can also be seen in its reaction after the EEOC issued its decision. Paul Marks, Deputy Chief of Labor and Employment Law in the Law Department, insisted to the New York Times that Ms. Almontaser was not discriminated against, adding, “If she continues to pursue litigation, we will vigorously defend against her groundless allegations.”

Vigorously, perhaps. Successfully is another matter in a case in which the city is on record stating that the article that led it to force Ms. Almontaser out was inaccurately reported.

Mr. Klein and Mr. Bloomberg are continuing to contest this case because failing to do so would be an acknowledgment of their moral cowardice in not standing with Ms. Almontaser against a newspaper that organized a hanging party based on its own misleading story.