A group of Jewish teachers and parents took New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks to task Tuesday, slamming the embattled school chief for botching the reaction to antisemitic unrest at a “radicalized” Queens high school.
The turmoil stems from a Nov. 2 student riot at Hillcrest, when hundreds of rowdy teens stormed through the campus and forced a Jewish teacher who was targeted to lock herself in a classroom closet, The Post revealed Saturday.
“Chancellor Bank’s weak response to the antisemitic riot at Hillcrest High School failed to condemn the behavior of over 400 students that threatened the life of a teacher, solely because she is Jewish,” educator Tova Plaut, a member of the New York City Public School Alliance, said on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
“He failed to recognize the deep-seated Jewish hate present in our school and then doubled down on this failure by minimizing and erasing the legitimate concerns of our community,” Plaut said as she stood with 20 supporters.
“Chancellor Banks, this is your teachable moment,” she said. “Stop the hate now.”
Banks spent the day at the troubled Jamaica school on Monday to try to diffuse the situation — only to be told by staffers that they’re afraid to show up for work.
He said there had been “disciplinary action” taken following the ugly incident but would not provide details.
But Banks appeared to downplay the potentially explosive tension at the school — even as one group of students flashed a Palestinian banner at him when he arrived at the Jamaica campus.
A pro-Israeli rally is now planned outside Hillcrest on Thursday raising more safety concerns.
“This notion that this place, these kids are radicalized and antisemitic is the height of responsibility,” he told reporters on Monday. “I will not accept that at all.”
On Tuesday, the Jewish teachers said Banks just hasn’t done his homework.
“We have heard from employees and parents who have shared experiences and evidence of Jewish hate across the school system,” said Karen Feldman, a social studies teacher at an Upper East Side school. “Hillcrest is one example among many.”
Feldman said graffiti “depicting Jewish hate” in the bathroom of her school went untouched for more than a month and said last year the mom of an Israeli student complained her daughter was being taunted as a “baby killer” by other students when she arrived at school every morning.
“I can’t imagine how these students must feel in New York City, 2023, knowing that so many people in school are wishing them harm solely because they are Jewish,” she said.
“Is this the type of learning environment that we think is productive?”
Speaking earlier in the day, Mayor Eric Adams came to Banks’ defense during a press briefing.
“He showed up and he listened,” Adams said. “He listened to dozens of students who talked very honestly and openly about their and their issues. He listened to teachers talk very openly honestly and other staff members about their feelings about this incident.
“Chancellor Banks made clear totally unacceptable, that [the] teacher should never have been targeted by a protest for her stand on Israel,” he added. “We cannot allow that to ever happen again.”
However, the Hillcrest riot is just the latest in a string of ugly incidents at the school since the Oct. 7 sneak attack on Israel by radical Hamas militants and the subsequent Israeli counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip.
A week earlier, four students — two 15-year-old boys and two 16-year-old boys — were arrested for allegedly assaulting an NYPD school safety agent who was trying to break up a fight.
Plaut said the Alliance has four demands for Banks, including acknowledging the anti-Jewish culture in the city school system, declaring a zero-tolerance policy for antisemitism, and adding a curriculum to address diversity and inclusion, including lessons in Jewish heritage and culture.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy