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NYC school board members with ties to right-wing Moms for Liberty ousted in local election
NYC school board members with ties to right-wing Moms for Liberty ousted in local election

Yahoo

time6 days ago

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

NYC school board members with ties to right-wing Moms for Liberty ousted in local election

School board members in Manhattan with ties to the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty were not re-elected to their local education council, according to results announced Monday. Those knocked off the panel included Community Education Council 2 member Maud Maron, who brought a federal lawsuit against the New York City Education Department to regain her seat after a former schools chancellor removed her for misconduct. Maron stirred controversy last year for sponsoring a resolution condemned by LGBTQ+ advocates as anti-transgender student athletes. In a statement to the Daily News, Marone said many parents have started voting — not just during the election, but with their feet — and leaving a school district that, as she sees it, is lowering academic standards. 'More social justice activism in lieu of an academic focus will accelerate that trend,' said Maron, who was one of two CEC 2 members to speak at a Moms for Liberty forum in Jan. 2024. Democratic politicians decried the event, and neither member secured enough votes to return to the education council. Nearly 1,400 parents applied this cycle — a 24% increase — for seats on Community and Citywide Education Councils, which serve as New York City's school boards in a public school system controlled by the mayor, according to Education Department data. There are 32 geographic councils and four citywide panels, which focus on certain students: English language learners, children with disabilities and high schoolers. 'Our schools continue to thrive because of committed parent leadership,' Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement. 'The [Community and Citywide Education Councils] elections show just how deeply we value parent voices to shape our schools and build a stronger, more inclusive system for all our students. We are committed to giving our elected parent leaders the support and tools they need to lead effectively.' But greater interest in serving on the councils didn't translate into any improvement in voter turnout, which remained abysmally low. This year, fewer than 18,200 parents cast ballots in a school system of close to 1 million children — a 4% decrease in participation since the last election cycle in 2023, the data showed. While the panels are often limited in what they can do, they help shape the conversation around hot-button education debates, such as how schools should respond to Israel's war in Gaza or transgender student athletes. Last cycle, the local education advocacy group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, captured a significant foothold on the councils, launching a debate over whether the city was experiencing a backlash to progressive education policies. PLACE advocates for more Gifted & Talented programs and the use of a single exam for admissions to specialized high schools. PLACE-endorsed candidates will make up 31% of elected seats, down several percentage points from the last election, according to the group's tallies. This election, PLACE declined to endorse Maron, a co-founder of the organization, who is separately running for Manhattan district attorney as a Republican. 'It's an honor to have received the most votes for an individual candidate in the entire city,' Craig Slutzkin, the current president of Community Education Council 2, said in a PLACE press release Monday. 'I believe this a reflection of parents' desire for rigorous, quality education for all kids throughout the city, something I have been fighting for over the past two years.' CEC 2 — which oversees a sprawling district from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side, while omitting some neighborhoods such as the East Village — became the site of sustained protests since The News broke the story last spring of plans to urge the chancellor to revisit the city's inclusive policy on transgender girls' participation in school sports. The ensuing turmoil sparked organized efforts to oust the resolution's backers. CEC 2 saw more than double the number of applicants than in 2023, according to Education Department data. Erin Khar, a parent leader on the P.S. 41 Greenwich Village School PTA, said she was encouraged to run by other education advocates, and made her final decision to apply after President Trump's inauguration and the onslaught of new federal policies that came with his re-election. 'I realized that while I don't have control of things over a federal level, I do have influence and control over what happens in New York City,' said Khar, who hopes to help rescind the transgender sports resolution. 'I absolutely believe we'll be able to do it with the new makeup of the council with a message to the trans kids … The message to them is we will protect them — that the protections that already exist within the DOE will be upheld, and we're going to ensure that.' Council members serve two-year terms beginning on July 1.

Baltimore teacher says in lawsuit she was falsely accused of making social media threats
Baltimore teacher says in lawsuit she was falsely accused of making social media threats

CBS News

time13-06-2025

  • Politics
  • CBS News

Baltimore teacher says in lawsuit she was falsely accused of making social media threats

A Baltimore teacher is suing Republican delegates, members of Moms for Liberty, and a right-wing social media account for defamation of character after she was accused of making online threats. Former Baltimore County Spanish teacher Alexa Sciuto said last summer she questioned local Moms for Liberty leader Kit Hart about the meaning of the word "woke" at a conservative parenting summit, which Sciuto was protesting. Sciuto posted a video of the exchange on her TikTok. "I think it got 600,000 views on my platform," Sciuto said. After the video went viral, Sciuto posted a picture of Hart with the caption, "Officer, I swear I didn't mean to murder her," which she said was rhetorical. Lawsuit names state lawmakers, Moms for Liberty members Baltimore County Republican delegates Lauren Arikan, Robin Grammer, Ryan Nawrocki, and Kathy Szeliga wrote a letter to the superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools saying Sciuto made a death threat to Hart and called for her to be fired. "I did not think that what I said could possibly be interpreted as a threat," Sciuto said. Sciuto resigned from Baltimore County schools in May 2024. Her lawsuit, filed in Baltimore County circuit court, states that members of Moms for Liberty have been falsely claiming she was fired. Sciuto is suing the four delegates who wrote the letter, two local leaders of Moms for Liberty, including Kit Hart, and the owner of a right-wing social media account. She's seeking damages for reputational harm, emotional distress, and loss of future earnings. "People still believe that I was fired, and I was not; they believe that I was asked to resign, and I was not. Worst of all, they think that happened because I made a criminal threat and I did not," Sciuto said. "So, to be taking action and to be speaking for myself after all of that is different and it's good and I'm ready." The defendants named in the lawsuit have yet to respond to WJZ's request for comment.

St. Francis school district scraps book banning policy, will return titles to shelves
St. Francis school district scraps book banning policy, will return titles to shelves

CBS News

time10-06-2025

  • Politics
  • CBS News

St. Francis school district scraps book banning policy, will return titles to shelves

A lawsuit stemming from a book banning policy in the St. Francis school district has been settled, and the books will return to shelves. In March, Education Minnesota-St. Francis and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed lawsuits after the district adopted a policy that removed librarians and teachers from the book approval process and replaced them with a website called "Book Looks." The website, which shut down in late March, was affiliated with Moms for Liberty, a group at the forefront of the conservative movement targeting books that reference race and sexuality. The website ranked the books from zero to five, with zero being "for everyone" and five being "aberrant content." If a book with a rating of three or above was challenged, the policy dictated that it would be removed from shelves, the ACLU said in its lawsuit. More than 30 books were removed from libraries and classrooms, including "The Bluest Eye," "Slaughterhouse-Five," "The Kite Runner," "Brave New World," "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Night." The school board accepted the settlement during its regular meeting on Monday. The education union agreed to drop the lawsuit and did not seek any financial damages. A new book policy in St. Francis will include input from teachers, librarians and student representatives. A review committee can only remove a book with a supermajority vote, and the school board can only overrule the review committee after publishing a report and acting in a public meeting. The new policy must also stay in place for at least three years. "We achieved this settlement because parents, students, our community and even Minnesota authors stood with educators to defend the freedom to read in public schools," said Education Minnesota-St. Francis President Ryan Fiereck. "The students' stories and commitment to fixing this terrible policy were particularly inspiring." WCCO has reached out to the St. Francis Area School Board for comment.

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