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Joe Borelli, a member of New York City’s school board, is facing backlash for using the word retarded in a social media post on Sunday evening.
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’s Super Bowl performance. Thanedar, a Michigan Democrat, captioned the image: “Loving it!!”
Borelli, a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, quoted Thanedar’s post with his own comment: “This was the most retarded thing to happen during the Bad Bunny show.” The post has since been deleted.
Former Mayor Eric Adams appointed Borelli, a former leader of City Council’s Republican delegation, to the panel in the final weeks of his administration. The panel oversees the nation’s 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.
Greg Faulkner, who chairs the school board, called on Borelli to apologize Monday morning.
The word is a “harmful slur that carries a long history of marginalization and pain for the disability community,” Faulker wrote in a letter to Borelli. “Such 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.”
Some parent leaders shared similar sentiments with Borelli.
Borelli acknowledged that the language was not appropriate given his role on the panel. “I apologize to the chair and the members of the board,” he told Chalkbeat.
He added: “As stupid as the member of congress taking selfies with his TV was, it’s not as stupid as my comment.”
All of Adams’ 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 until then.
But under state law, Mamdani can remove mayoral appointees to the school board for “good cause” 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’s wishes).
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.
“We 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,” Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein wrote in a statement.
Use of the word retarded has exploded in recent years on X, spurred in part by Elon Musk’s use of it, researchers have found. Other high-profile conservative figures have used it, too. President Donald Trump used the word 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, described the trend last April as “one of the great cultural victories.”
The phrase “mental retardation” was once considered a socially acceptable term, though it has fallen out of favor. In 2010, the federal government replaced the phrase in federal legislation and policies with “intellectual disability.”
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
