Schools boss urges calm after Hillcrest High incident
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School Chancellor David Banks and other officials addressed a reported “riot” at Hillcrest high school on Nov. 20 over a teacher who posted their support of Israel to social media. Screenshot from the New York City Department of Education
By Ryan Schwach
The city’s school chancellor made a trip Monday afternoon to Hillcrest High School, the site of a reported “riot” the week prior by students angered by a teacher who posted their support of Israel to social media.
Schools Chancellor David Banks met with students, administrators and the media from the Queens school Monday after the news of last week’s incident quickly spread over the weekend, a little less than a week after it happened.
According to the chancellor, around 400 students “acted disruptively during class changing time,” in a planned protest against the Jewish health teacher who posted weeks prior about her support for Israel while at a rally not long after the nation’s conflict with Hamas began last month.
The teacher posted an image at a rally holding a sign that said “I stand with Israel.”
Posts to TikTok and shared on other social media platforms shows students crowding the hallways on Nov. 20, many of whom were carrying Palestinian flags. One image showed a drinking fountain torn from the wall.
The teacher in question was taken to safety by school officials and was two floors down from the events taking place, but was not “barricaded in her room,” as some reports suggested.
On Monday, Banks and a duo of student leaders looked to set the record straight and correct misjudgements aimed at the Hillcrest student body.
“The students and staff at Hillcrest deserve the facts to be laid out truthfully,” said Banks.
Banks looked to correct assertions from both the public and the press that the students were “radicalized”, or that all of the students involved were antisemitic.
“This notion that these kids are radicalized and antisemitic is the height of irresponsibility,” said Banks, “I for one will not accept that at all.”
“This is the ultimate teachable moment,” he added. “That's why I'm here today, not to cast aspersions or 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.”
Muhammad Ghazali, the Senior class president at Hillcrest, also looked to defend his fellow students.
“A lot of these students, they didn't know what they were doing at the moment,” he said. “They didn't know what they were doing. They didn't even want to be a part of this. Not everybody in that riot was a Muslim, or was antisemitic. Not everybody was there to be a part of that protest.”
Ghazali said the Hillcrest community as a whole is “hurt and broken” due to the situation, but said it was meant to be a peaceful protest.
“It didn't turn out the way it should have been,” he said. “It was meant to be a peaceful protest from the very beginning. But some of these students lack maturity. These are teenagers that we're here with.”
“These students have the right to go out there and protest, but it's just the way they protested was wrong,” he added. “We don't ever stop anybody in the school community to put their opinion out or whether it's a student or its staff.”
Hillcrest Principal Scott Milczewski also added that the attack of a uniformed school safety agent a few days before Nov. 20 was a completely separate incident.
Earlier on Monday and in the days since the events of Nov. 20 became more public, elected officials and other community members spoke out against the students involved and called for discipline.
“There has to be some kind of repercussions,” Assemblymember David Weprin, who represents Hillcrest, told the Eagle. “What kind of discipline, what kind of steps are they taking to make sure that these particular students that led this riot participated in this right, that there are consequences.”
Although Weprin wasn’t sure what those repercussions should be, albeit floated suspension or expulsion, other electeds were more specific.
Councilmember Vickie Paladino called for the suspension of all Hillcrest faculty, pending an investigation, as well as suspension for every student involved and expulsion for organizers.
“If we are not prepared to at least discuss these necessary steps in the wake of a truly horrific event such as this -- one which could have been much worse -- then we are simply not serious about saving our children,” she said in a statement.
Jewish community leaders, including Sorelle Adelis, the founder of the Queens Jewish Alliance, want to see more action from elected officials.
“Everybody's saying the right things, but no one's actually doing anything,” Adelis said. “Everyone's talking about antisemitism, but they're not doing anything about it.”
Queens elected officials and community members condemned the actions of students and called for disciplinary action on Monday. Screenshot from Councilmember Joann Ariola/Twitter
Adelis says she partially believes the students involved in the protest lacked the education to understand what they were protesting about.
“They have no idea what they're even saying,” she argued. “They have no idea what they're talking about.”
Since the conflict in Israel and Gaza broke out in October, hate crimes against Jews and Muslims have risen across the country, and fears continue in Queens, particularly with its racial and religious diversity.
“Any hate incidents, any hate speech or any attacks based on someone’s ethnic background is very disturbing,” said Weprin. “Especially with such diverse districts.”
Electeds say there is still more to do.
“We have a lot of work to do, a lot of work cut out,” added Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who stood alongside Banks and Weprin at the afternoon press conference. “I know what Queens it's representative of, I know who we are as a borough. We've done a lot of this work, and we can't allow this war to cripple the momentum that we had.”
As for any discipline for any students involved, officials refrained from giving specifics in order to maintain student privacy, but Banks said that the DOE has “invoked a set of disciplinary measures.”
