Manhattan mom booted from NYC parent education council sues for reinstatement: ‘Inappropriate and unconstitutional’
A Manhattan mom booted from a parent education council by city schools chief David Banks is seeking to be reinstated through a federal lawsuit.
Maud Maron of Manhattan’s Community Education Council 2 was ousted in a historic move by Banks on Friday under the city’s D-210 complaint process.
The regulation allows the city Department of Education to investigate CEC members and remove them from positions.
Banks also ousted Tajh Sutton, the president of Brooklyn’s ultra-woke Community Education Council 14.
Both women had various complaints lodged against them.
The controversial complaints process was up front and center in the Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday when Maron — alongside parent plaintiffs Deborah Alexander and Noah Harlan — argued its validity.
“They know that the regulation was flawed from the start,” Alexander said to The Post outside court.
Harlan added, “The use of D210 to remove elected officials from their offices is wildly inappropriate and unconstitutional, and I think we’ll be vindicated in that.”
The trio is seeking an injunction against CEC-14, nominal damages of $17.91 per plaintiff and attorney fees, plus Maron’s reinstallment.
Sutton has been reprimanded by Banks for promoting a citywide student walkout in protest of the Israel-Hamas war.
Maron allegedly made unacceptable “derogatory or offensive comments” about a public-school student in an interview with The Post.
She called said a Stuyvesant High School student who penned a school newspaper article widely viewed as antisemitic a “coward” because the writer was anonymous.
The suit claims that the DOE has imposed harsh consequences on individuals through the D-210 complaints.
“So long as you’re not issuing a true threat, we have very narrow definitions of unprotected speech,” the plaintiffs’ lawyer Alan Gura said in court.
Gura argued that the D210 complaint system was “vague and overbroad” and questioned the DOE’s removal of Maron.
“At the very least, if the court does not agree with us… it should prevent Chancellor Banks from filling [her] seat,” Gura added.
It’s unclear what avenue of appeal there is if Maron’s and Sutton’s seats are filled.
Assistant Corporation Counsel for the city Law Department Jordan Doll defended the DOE’s decision, saying the removals are appropriate and that if people don’t like them, there is already a proper appeals process in place.
Judge Diane Gujarati has yet to make her decision but said she found “various of the plaintiffs’ arguments persuasive.”
“I do think that certain aspects of D210 are potentially more troubling than others,” she added before adjourning the case.
