{"id":127998,"date":"2026-02-09T21:04:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/127998\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T21:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:04:47","slug":"nyc-school-board-member-faces-ire-for-r-word-in-bad-bunny-super-bowl-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/127998\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC school board member faces ire for R-word in Bad Bunny Super Bowl post"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Joe Borelli, a member of New York City\u2019s school board, is facing backlash for using the word retarded in a social media post on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

The post was a response to U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, who shared a photo of himself on the social media site X smiling in front of a television during Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl performance. Thanedar, a Michigan Democrat, captioned the image: \u201cLoving it!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Borelli, a member of the city\u2019s Panel for Educational Policy, quoted Thanedar\u2019s post with his own comment: \u201cThis was the most retarded thing to happen during the Bad Bunny show.\u201d The post has since been deleted.<\/p>\n

\"AA screen grab of a Tweet by Joe Borelli, who then deleted it. (Screen grab of Joe Borelli’s tweet) <\/p>\n

Mayor Eric Adams appointed Borelli<\/a>, a former leader of City Council\u2019s Republican delegation, to the panel in the final weeks of his administration. The panel oversees the nation\u2019s largest school system and votes on major contracts, policy changes, and school closures. More than 1 in 5 New York City public school students has a disability, or over 200,000 children. <\/p>\n

Greg Faulkner, who chairs the school board, called on Borelli to apologize Monday morning.<\/p>\n

The word is a \u201charmful slur that carries a long history of marginalization and pain for the disability community,\u201d Faulker wrote in a letter to Borelli. \u201cSuch language is fundamentally at odds with the mission of this Panel and the inclusive environment we strive to build for our students and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some parent leaders shared similar sentiments with Borelli. He did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

All of Adams\u2019 appointees to the school board have terms that run through June, which means Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not be able to appoint a majority of the board<\/a> until then. <\/p>\n

But under state law, Mamdani can remove mayoral appointees to the school board for \u201cgood cause\u201d if a public explanation for the removal is provided 10 days in advance and the appointee has a chance to refute the claims (they cannot be removed simply for voting against the mayor\u2019s wishes).<\/p>\n

A Mamdani spokesperson deferred to the Education Department for comment and did not respond to a question about whether the mayor would consider removing Borelli. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are unwavering in our support for all of our students, regardless of background or disability, and we strongly condemn the type of language used by a PEP member yesterday evening,\u201d Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein wrote in a statement. <\/p>\n

Use of the word retarded has exploded in recent years on X, spurred in part by Elon Musk\u2019s use of it, researchers have found<\/a>. Other high-profile conservative figures have used it, too. President Donald Trump used the word<\/a> in a social media post to refer to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz last Thanksgiving. Joe Rogan, whose podcast has topped the charts in recent years<\/a>, described the trend<\/a> last April as \u201cone of the great cultural victories.\u201d<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cmental retardation\u201d was once considered a socially acceptable term, though it has fallen out of favor. In 2010, the federal government replaced the phrase<\/a> in federal legislation and policies with \u201cintellectual disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[55264,4146,55262,9,24,56,63,65,64,55265,4396,55263],"class_list":{"0":"post-127998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-bad-word","9":"tag-chalkbeat","10":"tag-joe-borelli","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-shri-thanedar","18":"tag-slur","19":"tag-tweet"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}