A black teacher at Beacon High School in Manhattan was filmed telling cheering students to boycott over the alleged racist environment on the Manhattan campus.
Hundreds of students gathered in the school cafeteria in protest on Friday after a black student claimed to have overheard a white Jewish peer making ‘racist remarks’ in a confidential meeting with college guidance counselors.
One student at the protest posted a video on Instagram in which a black teacher, who identified himself as ‘Mr Green’, is heard addressing the raucous crowd.
‘What we’re asking of all students: Do not come to school that day to show solidarity for the support of not just students of color but all students at Beacon in providing a safe space,’ the teacher said.
‘Until the demands are met, students are not to return to school.’
When some of the students suggested staging a sit in while wearing all black with tape on their faces, the teacher responded: ‘What is that going to do? Students before you, before I, have done the same thing, and nothing has happened.’
An Instagram video captured the moment a black teacher at Beacon High School told students to boycott the Manhattan campus during a protest sparked by ‘racist remarks’ allegedly made by a white Jewish girl during a private meeting with college admissions counselors
In the video the black teacher, who identified himself as ‘Mr Green’, is heard telling the crowd of hundreds of pupils: ‘What we’re asking of all students: Do not come to school that day to show solidarity for the support of not just students of color but all students at Beacon in providing a safe space. Until the demands are met, students are not to return to school’
The city Department of Education, United Federation of Teachers and the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools have reportedly been inundated with complaints about Green’s call for a boycott.
Critics have accused the teacher of inflaming racial tensions, encouraging student insubordination and violating DOE attendance and safety regulations.
It is unclear what action has been taken in response to Green’s comments, and the DOE and Beacon officials have not spoken publicly about the incident.
The white student whose alleged remarks sparked Friday’s protest offered her side of the story to the New York Post, explaining that she was meeting with guidance counselors to come up with a plan after she was waitlisted at a top university.
She said she and the two counselors, who are white and Jewish, were reviewing charts on college admissions data and discussing how other students with [weaker] academic qualifications than her had been accepted.
‘The context of my private conversation included my disapproval about the unfairness of students who were accepted to college without meeting the rigorous criteria that I and others worked so hard to achieve, because they might be athletes, afforded financial scholarships, and/or get seats based on affirmative action programs, as opposed to academic achievement as the first and only criteria,’ the girl, whose name was withheld by The Post, explained in a statement.
The black student who overheard the discussion then interrupted the meeting and berated the girl and the counselors.
Word of the incident quickly spread across the campus and people began threatening the girl on social media, she said.
One Instagram post allegedly accused her of saying that ‘minorities stole her spot’, and ‘Im not gonna go to schools for black and brown people or ppl who are retarded’.
The person who wrote that post concluded it by saying: ‘That b***h looking to be destroyed LITERALLY’.
The girl said the students attacking her had twisted her words out of context to unfairly accuse her of racism.
She said one of her teachers also admonished her amid the outrage, saying: ‘People are going to hate you because you’re Jewish,’ and ‘You don’t understand your privilege.’
The student who posted the video of Green addressing the cafeteria crowd also shared other clips in which teens are heard vilifying Beacon administrators for their ‘lack of initiative’ in fixing what they described as a hostile environment for minority students
The student who posted the video of Green addressing the cafeteria crowd also shared other clips in which teens are heard vilifying Beacon administrators for their ‘lack of initiative’ in fixing what they described as a hostile environment for minority students.
‘This isn’t the first incident at Beacon that has involved racist rhetoric,’ one student said, referencing classroom discussions on slavery and the use of the N-word.
He also complained about how college advising office, charging that the counselors ‘look nothing like the student body’ and give harmful advice to black students.
The student noted that the administration had not yet apologized for the white student’s apparent remarks in her advising appointment.
‘Here we are three days later, and kids of color have not received an acknowledgement about the situation,’ he said.
The Beacon student body is 47 percent white, 20 percent Hispanic, 14 percent black, 9 percent Asian and 10 percent ‘other’, according to the school’s website. The front of the school’s Manhattan campus is shown above
Protesting students announced plans to stage a sit in on Monday on the social media page ‘Beacon’s United Unions’.
The group also published a list of ‘Official Demands’ in response to the ordeal on Sunday.
The list includes a call for the administration to publicly apologize for ‘allowing racism to fester’ for years, to install mandatory workshops on ‘implicit bias’ for students and staff, and to change hiring practices to ensure that the faculty ‘mirrors the diversity’ of the student body.
The students also demanded an investigation into the counselors involved in the white student’s meeting, and a promise that anyone who takes part in a boycott or sit-in ‘will not face any repercussions’.
Beacon Principal Ruth Lacey responded to the demands in an email to students on Sunday evening which was obtained by The Post, saying that she was ‘moved by the passion’ of those who spoke at the cafeteria protests.
Lacey invited students to participate in an after-school discussion on Tuesday, and said: ‘I understand that some students will be continuing to demonstrate the seriousness of these issues throughout Monday.’
The latest campus unrest comes two weeks after about 300 students staged a walk-out at the school to protest admission criteria which the said limited integration.
The Beacon student body is 47 percent white, 20 percent Hispanic, 14 percent black, 9 percent Asian and 10 percent ‘other’, according to the school’s website.
Protesting students published a list of ‘Official Demands’ Sunday on the social media page ‘Beacon’s United Unions’