Orange schools’ employee back at work after investigation finds no wrong-doing—Cleveland Jewish News

A Ballard Brady Middle School paraprofessional who was put on leave because of alleged antisemitic posts made on social media returned to work on May 6 after an investigation by the Orange City School District found that she didn’t violate any policies.

A letter sent from superintendent Lynn Campbell to the employee, Citlali Afsharian, on May 4 published on Facebook by Fairlawn-based Pattakos Law Firm LLC, who was representing her, on May 6, said that Afsharian was being investigated in regard to eight Orange Board of Education policies that concerned social media posts and “resulted in several complaints.”

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Pattakos Law said in its post on Facebook that Afsharian was suspended due to “unhinged reports by political extremists who falsely accused her of ‘antisemitism.’”

“These accusations were based on Facebook posts that Ms. Afsharian made to her private account, in her personal time, in which she was critical of the Israeli government and its military actions against innocent people across the Middle East,” Pattakos Law said. “Our firm pointed out to the district’s officials that all of Ms. Afsharian’s speech for which she was suspended was clearly protected from punishment under the First Amendment, referring them to clear and controlling legal precedent leaving no doubt about the constitutionally protected nature of Afsharian’s posts.”

Pattakos Law Firm said that it cited case law “confirming what is obvious to most people,” that criticism of the Israeli government and antisemitism are two entirely different things “even despite a malicious and heavily funded campaign to convince folks to the contrary.”

“As outrageous as it is that Ms. Afsharian was suspended in the first place and had her name smeared all over local news reports about an Orange Schools employee ‘under investigation for antisemitic social media posts,’ this is ultimately a win for free speech, as well as for basic decency, humanity, and justice,” Pattakos Law said. “As University of Michigan Professor Derek Peterson recently stated, ‘it should not be controversial to have one’s heart opened to the inhumanity and injustice of Israel’s war in Gaza,’ and ‘having an open heart to other people’s suffering is a fundamental human virtue” that should be modeled and taught to students “whatever their political posture may be.’