Two parent leaders embroiled in separate controversies over transgender student athletes and pro-Palestinian protests have been removed from their posts on Community Education Councils, Schools Chancellor David Banks announced on Friday.
“It is a sad day when New York City Public Schools is compelled to take the actions I have ordered today, but the violations committed by these two individuals have made them unfit to serve in these roles,” Banks said in a statement that did not name the two people involved.
Officials with the city Department of Education confirmed Saturday that Maud Maron, who has been accused of targeting transgender student athletes over her push to review the DOE’s gender guidelines, was removed from her post on Manhattan’s CEC 2. Tajh Sutton, president of Brooklyn’s CEC 14, who’s refused to hold in-person meetings citing threats over her pro-Palestinian advocacy, was also removed.
Chalkbeat, which reported the news Friday, said the chancellor has the authority to remove CEC members though it’s unclear if it’s ever happened before. The councils serve various districts throughout the city and are comprised of 12 voting members who are mostly parents. They have no legal authority but can be a barometer of local sentiment regarding school-related issues.
In Maron’s case, the DOE claims her removal was not related to her stances on gender inclusion, though Banks has publicly criticized her positions in the past. School officials said Maron violated city policies when she labeled the anonymous author behind a Stuyvesant High School newspaper opinion piece on the war in Gaza a “coward,” among other things, in comments to the New York Post.
Maron said she didn’t know the author was a student and insisted that her removal was an infringement of her free speech.
“They’re using it as an excuse to get rid of me because they don’t like my request to review gender policy,” Maron said in an interview. “They didn’t really like when I said our schools should be open, either. Or that our children shouldn’t have masks. Or that you shouldn’t have to be vaccinated to play intramural sports in public school.”
She added, “All of those things have been unwelcome when I’ve said them at various points over the few years, but what seems to outrage many people in this administration the most is the fact that I know the difference between men and women.”
Current DOE rules allow students to compete in sports that align with their gender identity, and not their sex assigned at birth. Maron led the charge in support of a resolution asking the city to review those guidelines, which passed in March.
A DOE spokesperson said Sutton, president of Brooklyn’s CEC 14, was removed after refusing to hold open, in-person meetings, in violation of state law. She has also been criticized for her distribution of pro-Palestinian protest materials that contained phrases deemed by others to be antisemitic.
Sutton stopped holding in-person meetings shortly after last year’s Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. CEC members at the time reported receiving threatening messages — including a package of feces in the mail — following their call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Banks implored CEC members to comply with state regulations requiring meetings to be held in person and available to the public, but Sutton told Gothamist there appeared to be “no recourse for the danger we are currently in.”
Sutton did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.
“These orders are rooted in my responsibility to ensure our families are represented by leaders who respect students and follow state law,” Banks said in his statement. “We have consistently and repeatedly made it clear that parent leaders must observe high standards of ethics, integrity and decorum.”
