DOE Reverses Course: UWS Community Action School to Remain Open

Chancellor Kamar Samuels has reversed course and says the Department of Education (DOE) is no longer planning to shut down a middle school on the Upper West Side that has been at the center of an explosive controversy over one parent’s racist remarks uttered unknowingly into a hot mic during an assembly.

He made the reversal known in an email sent to parents at the Community Action School which had been slated to close. The abhorrent remarks made during a meeting District 3 meeting on Feb. 10 in which the school closure was on the agenda.

A parent at the meeting was overhead on a hot mic uttering what has widely been termed as abhorrent and racist remarks while a black 8th grade student who was attending the middle school school that was going to be shut made a case for it to be kept open.

“They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” the parent, later identified as Allyson Friedman a biology professor at Hunter College, was overheard saying, not realizing her mic was hot and the remarks were heard by all. “If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back...you don’t have to tell them anymore,” she was heard saying. Her own daughter who was at the meeting with her attended the Center School, which had a majority white student body, according to Chalkbeat NYC.

Hunter College recently suspended Dr. Friedman for the comments she made, pending further investigation. Friedman had also apologized to the community and said that she was attempting to explain systematic racism to her daughter, who was present at the assembly. “My remarks were not directed at the student speaker, and they do not reflect my beliefs or values,” Friedman said.

Initially, Samuels, who had okayed the original shut down plan when he was Superintendent of District 3. Justification for the closure of the school was initially backed by city officials who claimed that the enrollment size of CAS, approximately 170 kids this academic year, was too small to sustain. The standardized test scores were reported as below the city average, another reason to carry out the plan. Many in the local community was urging that the school should remain open to preserve local education opportunities for the students who were mainly Black and Latino kids from low income families. And they pointed out that the middle school had added 40 new students this academic year.

After the remarks went viral, he was faced with comforting the shocked parents and students at CAS. On Feb. 25, two weeks after the remarks were uttered, he responded to the incident and posted a statement on February 25th, labeling the words a “vile and reckless attack.”

“First, the CAS [Community Action School] community is continuing to process and recover from the racist and unacceptable remarks directed toward a CAS student at a meeting in February,” Samuels said.

At the time, he had not reversed course, but claimed that his office was working on a plan to support the Community Action School to “repair the harm caused.” There were promises to take action, such as parent training sessions and general support to the CAS community. It wasn’t until Monday March 2 that the DOE said it was reversing its earlier plan and CAS was going to stay open.

“What the CAS community needs right now is meaningful and comprehensive support and that would be difficult to provide authentically in the context of a phase-out proposal,” said Samuels after the reversal was revealed.