Updated

Parents staged an overnight occupation of Central Park East I elementary school to demand the removal of principal Monika Garg, accusing her of fanning division and retaliating against resistant teachers.

“We have been fighting for the last year to get rid of an abusive principal,” said parent Kaliris Salas during the Thursday-night protest. “This principal came in and all she’s interested in is having power, and using that power and control to mistreat and harass and retaliate against teachers that speak up against her.”

CPE I was founded in 1974 as an arts-oriented alternative for East Harlem residents by educator Deborah Meier.

Garg’s appointment, her opponents insist, was an overt attempt by the DOE to reorient the school away from its origins toward basic academic metrics.

Dissent among teachers is snuffed out through questionable investigations and disciplinary actions that have led to an outright purge, critics said.

Story first appeared in the New York Post.