Schools Chancellor David Banks pushes back after allegations of antisemitism at Brooklyn school
NEW YORK - Accusations of antisemitism at a Brooklyn high school made headlines earlier this month.
Thursday, Schools Chancellor David Banks addressed that issue, and others.
At their Q&A, Banks and others spent the most time Thursday talking about the infiltration of cultural bias and hate into city schools. Wednesday, the DOE began training sessions for principals across the city on that topic.
It comes after multiple staff members at Origins High School in Brooklyn told CBS New York they had been victims of antisemitism.
CBS New York's Doug Williams asked Banks about it, and he and his deputies went on to spend 11 minutes on the topic. Banks was critical of the story's coverage, and response.
"You cannot take a single story, and then everybody runs with it as though it's the truth," Banks said. "We had elected officials standing in front of the school, responding to coverage they saw, never having been in communication with me... and never having even stepped foot in the school."
"There was a teacher at origins who did hear antisemitic comments from a handful of kids on a few occasions. That's not right," First Deputy Chancellor Daniel Weisberg said. "I heard from staff at this building over and over again. Not just supporting their principal, but supporting their school, and outrage that their school was being painted as some sort of hotbed for antisemitism."
"We know that as a system we are struggling with this. And we're continuing to provide the support," Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership Danika Rux said.
So, to recap: Weisberg confirmed one teacher did experience antisemitism, but there was lots of push-back from Banks despite that. Education officials said Wednesday's training with principals was "engaging" and geared toward teaching educators how to handle this issue, should it arise in their schools.
On another topic, they also discussed the remote learning debacle in February. Education officials said they're working with IBM every day to ensure they can handle the student body capacity, but a remote learning day would still required a staggered start. That means they think everybody can be online, but they still can't log in all at once.