Former Principal Of Arab School Sues City

An educator who helped create the city's first Arabic-themed public school sued the city yesterday, saying her constitutional rights were violated after reaction to statements she made during an interview led officials to pressure her to resign as its principal.

Debbie Almontaser said in the lawsuit that she was forced to resign in August from the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn after she was criticized for not condemning the use of the word "intifada" on a T-shirt made by a youth organization.

She said in the lawsuit that the meaning of her words was distorted after she told a reporter that intifada emerged from a root word meaning "shake off" and that the word has different meanings for different people but certainly implies violence to many, especially in connection with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

At a rally outside U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Ms. Almontaser listened as lawyers, educators and two city councilmen criticized the city and called for her to be reinstated as principal. Her lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for injury to her career and reputation, pain, suffering, and emotional distress. A telephone message for comment left with a spokeswoman for the city was not immediately returned.

Last month, a spokesman for the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said Ms. Almontaser would not be renamed principal of the Gibran academy. He had said earlier that she resigned to ensure the stability of the school and the schools chancellor agreed with her decision.