NEW YORK — New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks was grilled about antisemitism in schools Wednesday during a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill.
Banks was joined by school leaders from California and Maryland. He was the first to speak, delivering opening remarks about the work he said is being done to combat antisemitism.
“Keeping schools safe is in my DNA. When antisemitism rears its head, I believe we must respond, and we have. We have removed, disciplined, or are in the process of disciplining at least a dozen staff and school leaders,” said the schools chancellor.
Banks said New York City public schools have experienced at least 281 incidents since October 7, and at least 30 students have been suspended. He said the NYPD has responded to hate crimes and similar incidents, and the district has engaged dozens of community partners to serve as other forms of leadership.
Watch the full hearing with Banks and other school administrators here.
“It will not stand on my watch”
At one point, Banks was pressed by Congressman Burgess Owens, from Utah, about a recent protest and antisemitic incident at Hillcrest High School in Queens.
“I’m not sure if you heard clearly from what I said. What I said was very clear. We suspended a number of students who were the leaders at Hillcrest High School, number one. Number two, we removed the principal of that school for a lack of leadership and oversight,” Banks replied. “I don’t know how to make it much clearer. I condemn, clearly. What happened at Hillcrest was a complete act of antisemitism. It will not stand on my watch. We responded, and I don’t know how to make it any clearer.”
“Was the principal fired or just transferred to another school?” Owens asked.
“The principal was removed from the school,” Banks replied.
“Was he taken to another school?” Owens asked.
“He’s not at another school, no. He’s not in front of any more children,” Banks said.
Congressman Brandon Williams, of New York, later asked Banks whether the principal is still on school payroll. The chancellor replied, “yes, he is.”
“How can Jewish students go to school knowing that he is still on your payroll?” Williams asked. “How can that be?”
“Every employee who works in our schools has due process rights, sir. We do not have the authority, to just because I disagree, just terminate someone, that’s not the way that it works in our school system,” Banks replied.
Contentious hearings on Capitol Hill
The schools chancellor spoke with CBS New York’s political reporter Marcia Kramer before the hearing Capitol Hill, telling her antisemitism is a “vile scourge that cannot stand in our public schools.” He admitted the nation’s largest school system still has work to do to eradicate hate from the classroom.
“We’ve got to continue to educate, and some of the biggest challenges we really face are the bias that we find in our own adults, some of our teachers, some of our administrators, who are bringing some of their own political opinions into the schools and into the classroom. You cannot tolerate that. We have to provide a classroom setting which is fair and is balanced,” Banks told Kramer.
Harvard University’s Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sally Kornbluth faced tough questions from the same Congressional committee last December, leading to Gay and Magill’s resignations. Columbia University President Minouche Shafik was the latest to appear in April, with her testimony prompting a two-week protest on campus that led to hundreds of arrests.
