A New York City high school has fallen into the spotlight after 400 students ran and jumped through the halls waving Palestinian flags and calling for the removal of a Jewish teacher who shared her pro-Israel stance on social media.
Now officials are seeking to turn the fallout into a “teachable moment,” NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks said Monday.
Videos of the protest on Nov. 20 at Hillcrest High School, which teaches about 2,500 students in Jamaica, Queens, circulated online showing hordes of students running in the halls, dancing and waving flags.
But the clip drew sharp criticism, including from Mayor Eric Adams who condemned it as a “vile show of antisemitism.”
In a news conference Monday, Banks pleaded for understanding, noting the protest is yet another example of tension from the Israel-Hamas war having spillover effects in schools and college campuses in the U.S.
How the protest unfolded
The protest targeted a Jewish teacher who changed her social media profile photo to a photo of her holding an “I Stand with Israel” sign, Banks said during a news conference Monday.
When the protest unfolded, “the teacher was never in direct danger,” Banks said, countering prior reports and social media posts that the teacher was barricaded and hid for her safety.
“The teacher was moved to safety and the school swiftly took steps to make the school calm,” Banks said.
Officials said that the teacher was in the assistant principal’s office on the first floor speaking to police regarding an earlier report when the protest erupted on the third floor. The New York City Police Department said that day, it received a report from a 45-year-old female saying she received a “threat from an unknown person at the school on social media.”
School safety agents inside the school worked to calm the crowd and requested the response of the school sergeant, the NYPD said. Ultimately, the protest was dispersed and students returned to classrooms without further incident, police said.
Banks said disciplinary action has been made against some of the students, which included suspensions. He said that “dozens if not hundreds of the kids involved in that protest had no idea what was going on.”
Students say the protest unfolded in the wrong way
Banks said that he and other local leaders spoke with students and staff on Monday to understand how the protest precipitated.
About 30% of the students at Hillcrest are of Muslim faith, Banks said, and “feel a kindred spirit with the folks of the Palestinian community.”
He said in his conversations with students he came to learn that the young people weren’t learning about the war in the Middle East from news organizations, but from social media and Tik Tok.
“What they’re seeing on a daily basis is Palestinian families being blown up,” Banks said.
“Because this is a very visceral and emotional issue for them and that is what they are seeing, those images every single day, when they all of a sudden saw the image of the teacher that said “I Stand with Israel,” the students articulated to me they took that as a message that ‘I am affirming whatever is happening to the Palestinian family and community,’” he continued.
Student Khadija Ahmed told reporters at the news conference: “The message that we really wanted to get out there was we wanted Palestine to be free but the message got lost and lots of people were hurt mentally and our teacher was in danger.”
Banks condemned public outrage that has vilified the students who participated in the protests, saying, “The notion that these kids are radicalized or antisemitic is the height of irresponsibility.”
“To speak of every child in this school as antisemitic is simply wrong,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards echoed.
Senior class president, Muhammad Ghazali, also spoke before reporters, saying: “For us to be called terrorists by certain news channels and certain people … they call us certain names because of what we did or the way things happened, it wasn’t right.”
“It was meant to be a peaceful protest from the very beginning. But some of these students lacked maturity,” he added.
‘The ultimate teachable moment’
Banks also said that administration officials, including the mayor, have spoken with the teacher targeted and assured she has their full support.
He stressed that students and staff should be free to express themselves and their views, while not spewing hate, and said they’re working on fostering an inclusive environment.
“Look at these kids. This is the ultimate teachable moment. Not to cast judgment on our children but to make sure that we as a school community live up to what we need to live up to. Every teacher or anyone else needs to be affirmed in their humanity, religion or their own personhood and I will make sure that that happens,” he said.
The officials noted that other incidents were reported at the school last week — including police responding to a report of a threat Tuesday that led to the arrest of an 18-year-old — were unrelated to the protest and unrelated to the Israel-Hamas war.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
