A federal judge has reinstated controversial Manhattan school board member Maud Maron after she was removed for making “derogatory and offensive” comments about a student.
Maron, who has come under fire for her views on transgender students and affiliation with the far-right group Moms for Liberty, can continue to serve on Community Education Council 2 — covering lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side — as she challenges her ouster in court, Judge Diane Gujarati said late Tuesday.
While the preliminary injunction saves Maron her seat, it is also expected to have a lasting impact on the ability of the nation’s largest school district to push out elected parent leaders accused of misconduct.
Gujarati found there was a “clear and substantial likelihood” that parts of D-210 — the regulation that authorized the chancellor to remove school board members — violates their free speech rights, because they’re too vague or can discriminate against certain viewpoints.
“[The policy] does not provide a reasonable opportunity to a person of ordinary intelligence — before such person is subject to investigation under Regulation D-210 — to understand what conduct Regulation D-210 prohibits,” Gujarati wrote in the order.
Spokespeople for the Education and Law Departments did not immediately return a request for comment but, in court filings, said continued enforcement of the regulation had been waived as the school system “prepares to post revisions in an effort to address Plaintiffs’ concerns.”
It was not clear what the edits are or when they will be implemented.
“Obviously we think the judge got this right,” Maron said, “The order to remove me was unconstitutional as is the Chancellor’s Reg. D-210. Parents voted for me, I belong on CEC 2, and kicking me off because you disapprove of my speech is un-American and not the kind of action the Chancellor should be role modeling for young people.”
There are 32 Community Education Councils, alongside a series of other citywide panels focused on particular populations of students. The councils have been largely advisory since the mayor was given control of the city’s public schools, but set the tone for high-profile debates in local education; its members selected in often low-turnout elections.
Last school year, Maron called a Stuyvesant High School student a “coward” to the New York Post, responding to an anonymous school newspaper editorial against Israel. The Education Department removed her in June, calling her quote “unnecessary aggressive speech” that made a child fear for their personal safety.
Maron has since denied knowing its author was a student.
It was not the first time Maron and top education officials were publicly at odds. In the spring, Maron sponsored a non-binding resolution that could have pushed transgender student athletes out of girls’ sports, after her private texts leaked denying the existence of “trans kids.” Chancellor David Banks condemned both incidents.
The city has defended the regulation as necessary for school boards to function. But Maron and other critics of D-210, adopted in the final days of the de Blasio administration but not operational until earlier this year, cheered the order as a victory for the First Amendment.
Gujarati, the judge, did not reinstate the other elected parent leader removed in June, Tajh Sutton, former president of Community Education Council 14 in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, saying the request was “not properly before the Court.” As part of the lawsuit, Maron and her co-plaintiffs also sued Sutton to regain access to her public meetings and social media accounts.
The case continues with the preliminary injunction in place.