It was back in December when I hosted Debbie Almontaser, Dr. Michelle Fine, and Donna Nevel to tell their side of a burgeoning NYC public schools scandal after a performance of MASKED and blogged about it here on MEY. The evil villian of the story: Daniel Pipes and the “Stop the Madrasa Coalition.” Through a clever campaign fanning unfounded fears that New York was funding a school that would foment anti-American sentiment, they succeeded in getting Debbie Almontaser to resign from a post she had worked for for years and in fact created: principle of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the first New York public school to focus on Arabic language and culture.

And now (drumroll please)…The New York Times has stepped in to set the record straight. In the front page lead article in print and for a two-page spread in the News section, reporter Andrea Elliot lets the story that we heard at MASKED reach every doorstep and kitchen table and computer screen where the newspaper is read. Debbie and her supporters, notably Alan Levine (her lawyer) and members of Communities in Support of KGIA are remarkable educators, activists and proponents of the ideals that this country supposedly stands on. I very much hope that this new wave of attention will turn into the desired, simple result: that Debbie can return to guide the school she worked so hard to make happen.

Oh yes–and we officially scooped The New York Times