New York Metropolis faculties Chancellor David Banks will testify at a U.S. Home of Representatives Committee on Schooling and the Workforce listening to on antisemitism subsequent month, he advised reporters Thursday.
Banks stated that he obtained a letter from the committee, which performed high-profile hearings final 12 months with the presidents of elite schools, asking him to testify at a Might 8 listening to beneath the specter of subpoena.
The committee, chaired by North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx, additionally invited two different college districts that Banks declined to call. A spokesperson for the committee confirmed Banks was invited however didn’t instantly present different details about the listening to.
“We look ahead to becoming a member of the committee and sharing how New York Metropolis Public Colleges proceed to ship an atmosphere of tolerance and respect for the biggest and most numerous college district within the nation,” Banks stated at a Thursday roundtable with reporters.
The nation’s largest college system, like districts throughout the nation, has handled a surge in tensions following Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on Israel and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Town’s Schooling Division is presently beneath investigation by the federal Schooling Division for its response to incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Hillcrest Excessive College in Queens, Banks’ alma mater, made nationwide information in November after college students staged a raucous protest calling for the ouster of a trainer who posted an image of herself on social media holding an indication that learn “I Stand With Israel.”
Banks condemned the protest and stated a number of college students had been disciplined for his or her half within the affair. However he burdened that many teenagers on the college, which has a big Muslim inhabitants, had been seeing photographs on social media “every day” of “youngsters and younger folks in Palestine … being blown up” and struggling to deal with their grief and anger. He vowed to show the incident a “instructing second” and in the end changed the varsity’s principal.
Employees at Origins Excessive College in southern Brooklyn lately alleged that rampant antisemitism from college students was going unchecked by directors — an accusation that metropolis Schooling Division officers strongly disputed.
In January, following complaints from some college students and educators a few lack of alternatives to speak productively in regards to the Israel-Hamas battle at school, Banks dedicated to providing new coaching for college leaders on holding tough conversations and responding to incidents of bias and discrimination.
On Thursday, as he mirrored on town’s response to the tumult in faculties across the Israel-Hamas battle, Banks stated “I wouldn’t say that I’m happy with what we’ve performed.”
However “I believe we’ve performed what we’re alleged to do,” he stated.
The battle has stirred up “all types of feelings in children in addition to adults, and we’ve obtained to handle all of that. For a complete system, that isn’t straightforward to do,” he added. “However I consider that our workforce has demonstrated a degree of management that I’m greater than keen to be on the desk and to precise what we now have performed.”
The Home committee that Banks will seem earlier than made headlines in December for a marathon listening to with the presidents of Harvard, the College of the Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, spawning viral clips of representatives grilling the directors on their definitions of and insurance policies for antisemitism on campus. Two of these presidents subsequently resigned.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, masking NYC public faculties. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.
