Seth Boyden teacher sues Ibtihaj Muhammad

Edited: there is another thread on this topic which folks can use.

jeffl - I posted this in the other thread:

Tamar Herman has filed a defamation lawsuit for causing irreparable harm against Ibthihaj Muhummad and the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Rights and its director.

"Her mother recounted the story on Facebook, and Ibtihaj Muhammad, an Olympic medalist who fences in a hijab, immediately denounced it as abuse in an Instagram post that went viral. By the next day, Gov. Philip D. Murphy had weighed in on Twitter, and a statewide Islamic organization was calling for the teacher’s “immediate firing.”

"In her lawsuit, she claims that Ms. Muhammad, the fencer, and CAIR-NJ were “motivated by a combination of greed and a fierce desire to burnish their brands as fighters against Islamophobia,” and that her reputation was so damaged that she can never be hired by another public school district."

"The legal papers also cite Governor Murphy’s social media commentary, but he is not named as a defendant."

"The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 5 in Union County Superior Court, also alleges that Ms. Herman is so afraid for her safety in the community where she taught for 20 years and also lived that she has had to permanently move out of her home."

"The teacher has not been permitted to return to the classroom and remains on administrative leave, according to the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for the district said she had no immediate information about the teacher’s job status."

"Mr. Maksut (executive director of CAIR-NJ) who wrote on Twitter that “racist teachers like this cannot be trusted around our children,” appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to discuss his organization’s demand that Ms. Herman be immediately terminated."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/18/nyregion/nj-teacher-hijab-ibtihaj-muhammad.html

eta - There are a lot of people who owe Ms. Herman an apology, including Murphy.

jeffl said:

This may be behind a pay wall.

Teacher at Center of Hijab Controversy Sues Olympic Medalist for Defamation - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

here's a non-paywalled link

This event made every one of us look bad.  The accusations, racism, anti semitism, and self righteous indigation online was terrible.  And at the end of it all only two people really know what happened.

I don't see how people who challenged really questionable allegations and called out irresponsible behavior on the part of the accuser look bad.

Let's not refight it all now.

Has there been a trial, settlement or trial date?

my extensive 5 minutes of research has turned up the following:

This one has some interesting details which I didn't know about and paints the defendants pretty unfavorably.  From April 2023.

https://www.jns.org/a-jewish-teacher-fights-back-against-cairs-persecution/

This one, from Oct 2023 says the suit has been OK'd to go forward.  Defendants requests for dismissal were rejected. This is the latest news I found. Doesn't look like a trial date has been set yet.

https://www.faanews.com/2023/10/major-victory-court-permits-jewish.html

drummerboy said:

my extensive 5 minutes of research has turned up the following:

This one has some interesting details which I didn't know about and paints the defendants pretty unfavorably.  From April 2023.

https://www.jns.org/a-jewish-teacher-fights-back-against-cairs-persecution/

This one, from Oct 2023 says the suit has been OK'd to go forward.  Defendants requests for dismissal were rejected. This is the latest news I found. Doesn't look like a trial date has been set yet.

https://www.faanews.com/2023/10/major-victory-court-permits-jewish.html

Thanks. 

CAIR and Muhammad appealed the Superior Court judge’s denial of a dismissal. On Nov. 16, the judge granted their request to put discovery on hold* until the Appellate Division decides their appeal.

* The current discovery end date is March 2.

DaveSchmidt said:

CAIR and Muhammad appealed the Superior Court judge’s denial of a dismissal. On Nov. 16, the judge granted their request to put discovery on hold* until the Appellate Division decides their appeal.

* The current discovery end date is March 2.

Link is inaccessible. 

drummerboy said:

Link is inaccessible. 

Oh, well. Anyone can reach the info through the state courts website as I did. 

I guess if it’s a reasonable appeal, it makes sense to hit the pause button on discovery. That seems like a normal procedural move in the judge’s part. 

Does anyone know about current status of the teacher’s suit against SOMSD (and consultant). 

Is the disciplinary action taken against her an issue in the upcoming BOE election?

We have so many issues why drag that up?  

Antisemitism is a huge issue for the Jewish children in our school district.  All of our children need to feel safe in school.  Harassment and bullying is a system wide problem that the school board  needs to address.  

Well, we can bring up everything and argue all the time and elect no one because they don't check every box, or we can look at the stuff that is current and the issues the candidates are interested in without making racism or anti semitism the central focus of everything.  We can elect the people we think have good heads on their shoulders and let them handle what comes up as it comes up.  

DanDietrich said:

We have so many issues why drag that up?  

it was just ruled that the school teacher can sue her. 

Did any current candidate for BOE serve on the Board at the time action was taken against the teacher?

If so, what position did the candidate(s) take on the disciplinary action against the teacher at that time?

dickf3 said:

Did any current candidate for BOE serve on the Board at the time action was taken against the teacher?

If so, what position did the candidate(s) take on the disciplinary action against the teacher at that time?

You can find and watch videos of BOE meetings from that time here. You should be able to answer your questions by matching members’ names with any current candidates and listening for whatever they had to say on the matter.

dickf3 said:

Did any current candidate for BOE serve on the Board at the time action was taken against the teacher?

If so, what position did the candidate(s) take on the disciplinary action against the teacher at that time?

There is an ongoing lawsuit against the Board of Education as well. No candidate, especially one who was serving on the Board at the time of the incident, should be talking about pending litigation against the Board.