How is the Teacher Forced to Hide from Teen Mob?
If you didn’t see the horrifying video of a teacher forced to barricade herself in a classroom for fear of a mob rising up against her — it’s without-a-doubt a new low for New York City schools. Especially as you follow the story and see little-to-no coverage of the event as a hate crime. Or showing any concern for the teacher and her current well being after experiencing such a horrific event.
Event at Hillcrest High School
If you missed it: a teacher attended a gathering in support of Israel and the attack on its citizens by Hamas — and likely thought nothing of posting a picture of herself on Facebook with an “I stand with Israel” sign. But almost immediately an unknown individual threatened the woman online. In fact, the comments were apparently so worrisome that the teacher called the police.
Unfortunately it would get worse. By 11 am on November 20th students started started to work one another up into a frenzy and the teacher was forced to hide away for hours.
Administration’s Response
While Mayor Adams took to X (formerly Twitter) to express a “zero tolerance” approach to the hateful, unruly actions of these kids, it wasn’t clear what next steps the mayor actually had in mind.
This morning, a week after the event, Chancellor Banks and and Borough President Donovan Richards did take to the podium to discuss. And you would be forgiven for expecting the first utterances to be about…well, the victim. How is she? Feeling scared? How is her mental health? Will she feel safe to return?
But, no, Borough Presidents Donovan Richards comments, the most egregious of the news conference, focused on anything but the teacher. These included:
Blaming the “situation” on what’s happening outside of the school (how much do these kids even know about the conflict?)
Talking about his trip to Gaza (which he did again when talking to the media. Why was he even there?)
He said that New Yorkers are being forced to “choose sides” (really, it’s not the Superbowl.)
He then spend the remainder of his time talking about not “demonizing” the school and that there are a “diverse set of opinions” in the school.
And finally, he said: “we can’t allow the war to cripple the momentum we have in this school” (how is a school with only 44% of students passing the Regents Exam to graduate… momentum?)
Watch the Press Conference Here
What’s Next
Unfortunately as we all know, if there is no reason to justify hate and violence there is no reason to make excuses for it. But as we pointed on X, this is a pattern at NYC public schools where the victims of violence have to get a safety transfer and the perpetrators get some sweet talk.
Next time perhaps something less politically advantageous in nature? We are failing our children in not teaching them right from wrong and it’s clear that teachers will continue to be on the losing, and more dangerous, side of this malestrom.