Fired Principal Sues Over Ban on Reapplication

A controversial New York City school principal who was fired last year over a T-shirt slogan has sued because she wasn't allowed to reapply for her job along with 25 other applicants.

Debbie Almontaser, who founded the first Arabic-language school in New York City, filed suit today in federal court against the mayor and school defendants. She contends that they violated her free-speech rights and “conspired to deny her the opportunity to regain her position as principal” of Khalil Gibran International Academy, reports the New York Times.

She was pressured to resign in August, when a public controversy arose over a newspaper article that quoted her as defending a T-shirt that contained the word “intifada." The word is defined as "an armed uprising of Palestinians against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip," according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.