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By Ilana Siyance
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has reiterated that he won’t stand for hate, as anti-Semitism has crept into city public schools.
The scene at Hillcrest High School in Queens as a Jewish teacher hid in her locked office for hours while students demanded she be fired for attending a pro-Israel rally. pic.twitter.com/jzVCEofvJS
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 25, 2023
On Saturday night, Mayor Adams slammed a “vile show of antisemitism” which occurred at a Queens high school when a “radicalized” mob of students rioted. As reported by the NY Post, teens at Jamaica’s Hillcrest High School shut down the school for two hours last Monday as they marched through the public school’s halls in a planned protest, after they learned that one of the school teachers had shared a Facebook post of herself attending a pro-Israel rally and holding a sign that read, “I stand with Israel.” The horrified teacher had to lock herself in a room as students from the riot allegedly tried to storm in.
“The vile show of antisemitism at Hillcrest High School 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,” Adams wrote on X Saturday night, sharing a link to the story. “We are better than this,” the Mayor added.
One senior at the high school described the incident to the Post, saying that a group of students “decided to make a group chat, expose the teacher, talk about it and then talk about starting a riot.” Just after 11 a.m. on Monday, hundreds of angry students had rushed the hallways, marching and rampaging through the building yelling, jumping and waving Palestinian flags and banners. “Everyone was yelling ‘Free Palestine!’” a senior told the Post.
Some school officials, along with the NY Police Departments, which arrived at the scene at about 11:20 a.m., had helped the teacher to take shelter in a locked office after learning the teens’ plans. “Everyone was screaming ‘(The teacher) needs to go!’” a ninth-grader said. Video clips of the incident were shared on social media, showing real damage was done to school property. A water fountain was ripped out of the ground in the hallway, and in the second-floor boys’ bathroom there were tiles shattered, per the videos. Students admitted to having vandalized the school areas. NYPD’s counterterrorism bureau was called in to investigate a potential threat against the school, said City Councilman James Gennaro (D-Queens), citing officials.
The health teacher, who was targeted, has been teaching at the school for the past seven years, and has been working in the NYC public school system for 23 years. “No one should ever feel unsafe at school — students and teachers alike,” said the teacher, who wished to remain anonymous.“ She told the Post: “I have worked hard to be supportive of our entire student body and an advocate for our community, and was shaken to my core by the calls to violence against me that occurred online and outside my classroom last week.”
Per the Post, the teacher had eventually been escorted safely out of the building by the NYPD after order was restored at the school. “It’s my hope that in the days ahead we can find a way to have meaningful discussions about challenging topics with respect for each other’s diverse perspectives and shared humanity,” the teacher told the Post. “Unless we can learn to see each other as people we will never be able to create a safe learning community.”
The NYPD had come back to the school on Tuesday to arrest an 18-year-old student for making threats in a group chat. The student was reportedly charged with aggravated harassment. “At least three students who organized the riot face superintendent’s suspensions, the most severe punishment,” per the Post.
School Principal Scott Milczewski said the school cannot release details on what consequences students involved will face, Breitbart reported. He added that the DOE “has a discipline code and I promise you that has been followed.”
