An expelled New York school board member is looking for his job back as controversial legislation faces a legal challenge

A group of school board members – including one who was removed from a Manhattan education panel last week – are challenging a controversial regulation that allows the Department of Education to remove elected parent leaders.

On Tuesday, Maud Maron, a former member of Community Education Board 2 covering Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side, and two other parents asked a federal judge in Brooklyn to stay the expulsion proceedings and reinstate Maron to the school. In each city school district, mostly advisory boards evaluate education policies and hear public comments on a range of issues.

The lawsuit concerns the Department of Education’s disciplinary process for board of education members, which allows the public to file complaints that then trigger an investigation and potential expulsion. Created in 2021 and known as “D-210,” the process did not become operational until it was staffed many years later.

Alan Gura, vice president of litigation at the Free Speech Institute and a lawyer for the parents, said the ordinance is illegal.

“It puts all kinds of unconstitutional restrictions on their speech,” he told reporters outside the court. “They are allowed to express their views, and they are actually elected to express their views and provide a different perspective than the chancellor or (the Department of Education).”

The city’s Law Department argued in oral arguments that the ordinance was narrowly tailored and necessary for the operation of school boards. A stay of the trial would be a “drastic remedy” if Maron could appeal her removal, said deputy corporate counsel Jordan Doll.

Brooklyn federal judge Diane Gujarati did not immediately rule on the preliminary injunction.

“I find the plaintiffs’ various arguments compelling,” Gujarati said, “and I find certain aspects of D-210 potentially more disturbing than others.”

On Friday, Maron and Tajh Sutton of Community Education Board 14 in Brooklyn became the first two members to be removed as part of the process. Sutton was president of the progressive school board in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, which promoted the student strike for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The three parents are also suing Sutton and another Community Education Board 14 member, claiming the panel excluded them from public meetings because of their differing views, according to the press release.

Maron and Sutton were removed from their positions due to the controversy surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.

In February, Maron called a Stuyvesant High School student a “coward” in a New York Post op-ed after the school newspaper published an anonymous opinion piece against Israel. The Departments of Education and Law said the Post’s comments were “offensive and offensive” and may have raised concerns about personal safety and potential disruption.

“Sometimes people act cowardly. Both Mayor Adams and I have the right to emphasize that,” Maron said, referring to comments Adams made last week about protesters wearing masks.

Sutton was found to have shared inappropriate material in connection with the student strike and had broken open meetings law. The school board missed monthly in-person meetings in response to death threats and receiving a box of feces after passing a ceasefire resolution.