Mayor says Hillcrest High to see increased safety measures upon teacher’s return
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Mayor Eric Adams and DOE officials discussed security and what comes next after the reported riot at Hillcrest High School last week. Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
By Ryan Schwach
Mayor Eric Adams and officials with the Department of Education discussed the future of Hillcrest High School following the fallout from a reported riot at the Jamaica school last week during his weekly off-topic press conference on Tuesday.
Adams, along with Deputy DOE Chancellor Dan Weisberg, discussed safety at the school for students, as well as the teacher whose social media posts sparked the commotion.
The mayor’s comments come less than a day after Schools Chancellor David Banks and other officials looked to correct the record on the “riot” at the Jamaica school, where around 400 students protested, filling the halls in response to a 9th grade teacher’s online posts supporting Israel.
“We're going to have the proper decorum that is expected of our students and that's expected of our professional staff,” said Adams on Tuesday.
Previously, Adams tweeted about the incident on Saturday, calling it a “vile show of antisemitism.”
“[It was] motivated by ignorance-fueled hatred, plain and simple, and it will not be tolerated in any of our schools, let alone anywhere else in our city,” he said in the tweet. “We are better than this.”
The teacher is expected to return to the school soon, and Weisberg says they are taking appropriate safety measures.
“We expect her back in school soon to do what she loves to do, which is to teach ninth graders,” he said. “We have been in close consultation with the school safety division with NYPD to make sure when the teacher does come back, that she will be safe, and that we have a safety plan in place and that she will be safe.”
Weisberg refrained from going into specifics about the security plans, including if there would be security in her classroom, when asked by reporters on Tuesday.
“I don't want to get into the specifics of that for I think fairly obvious reasons, but just trust to say we are talking to the experts at NYPD, school safety, as well as the teacher herself to make sure that she is safe,” he said.
Adams added that he does not want to see armed security in classrooms become a norm.
“We would never reach a day in this city where every individual classroom is going to need armed security…that is not going to happen,” he said. “That it will be a huge indictment on who we are as a city.”
Weisberg also spoke about work being done at the school, including allowing parents to make their feelings known about what comes next at the school, which he called a “jewel for a long time and in that part of Queens.”
“[It’s] very very important that we listen, it is the only way we're going to move past this,” he said. “It is unfair the way aspersions have been cast and broad-brush criticisms have been made of students and staff and so forth. This is a great school that is going through a very difficult time.”
Adams blamed social media and kids getting their news through algorithms on the events that took place at Hillcrest on Nov. 20.
“Our young people, their lives on social media, and social media is filled with so much trash,” he said. “So many lies, so many distortions, and that is where they get the news. They don't pick up the tabloids…They're reading these algorithms that are feeding their pain.”
