NYC school kids who misbehave will face “tangible consequences,” as part of a series of changes education officials are making in response to growing tensions in classrooms over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In a major speech teased for months at district town halls and education councils, Chancellor David Banks announced Monday his administration will retrain all principals on how to apply the discipline code, and strike what he described as a balance with chances for students to learn from their mistakes.
“These trainings are important because I’ve heard that some of our school principals feel disempowered from taking meaningful disciplinary action against egregious student behavior,” Banks said at the department’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, “even in clear-cut, common sense cases.”
“From my years as a school safety officer, a teacher, a principal, and perhaps most importantly, as a parent in raising four children of my own, I know that it is possible — and critical — to find a balance when it comes to discipline, to provide both restorative conversations as well as tangible consequences,” he said.
“We cannot and will not have schools where students feel like they can do whatever they want, without accountability for their actions. That is no way to run a school system and we will not allow that to happen, certainly not on my watch.”
The chancellor’s remarks to a group of mostly parents and advocates were responding to heightened concerns as the war in Gaza and the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel have sent shockwaves through some local school communities.
While that anxiety has touched neighborhoods across the city, the Department of Education restricted media access to Banks’ remarks.
The Daily News, along with at least two other media outlets, was barred from attending the event and could not direct questions about retraining principals to the chancellor.
A spokesperson for the public schools, citing limited space and a priority for “stakeholders,” would not explain how it decided which members of the local education press corps were permitted in person. The event was held in the headquarters’ sprawling atrium, steps away from the main entrance. It was not included on the chancellor’s public schedule.
The speech follows a series flare-ups at the city’s public schools. This month at P.S. 261 in Boerum Hill, a social media post of a Middle Eastern map used in an Arab art class that omitted Israel, labeling the region Palestine, sparked outrage online 12 years after it was introduced to the classroom.
During his address, Banks called a protest at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica targeting a Jewish teacher, who attended a pro-Israel rally just days after Hamas’ terrorist attacks, “deeply concerning.”
It was not immediately clear what the updated trainings would entail. But the emphasis on consequences marked a clear departure from the more progressive approach of chancellors under former mayor Bill de Blasio, who pushed schools to reduce punitive and exclusionary school discipline policies in favor of dialogue, self-reflection and lessons in impulse-control.
The overhauled trainings will start in the “coming weeks,” the chancellor said.
At the event, principals union president Henry Rubio echoed Banks’ sentiment that administrators “often” feel unable to take disciplinary action against students.
“School leaders — our school leaders — must be trusted to make decisions with their stakeholders that they believe are in the best interest of their unique schools and their communities,” Rubio said.
Advocates for school discipline reform argue being removed from school only further traumatize children and result in a loss of valuable classroom time, when students can keep up with academics and learn good behavior from their peers. The city issued more than 28,400 suspensions last school year. Those measures have disproportionately affected Black students and children with disabilities, city data show.
Later this spring, all middle and high school principals will participate in workshops on “navigating difficult conversations,” and take those lessons back to train their entire staff. Education officials are also working with the teachers and principals unions to add specific antisemitism, Islamophobia, and nondiscrimination laws components to their diversity trainings and materials.
“While we can — and should — expose students to a variety of viewpoints, we must leave our personal viewpoints at home,” Banks said. “Our job is to educate, not to indoctrinate.”
Parents, too, will be invited to a series of anti-discrimination workshops starting next month.
Alongside the various trainings, the school system has expanded instructional materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia for students.
“We need to point students to reliable and objective sources about the current crisis,” Banks said, “so they develop an informed, nuanced understanding that goes beyond inflammatory rhetoric. We cannot leave it to social media to educate our children.”
Banks announced he has fast-tracked investigations into allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia, while meeting with several Jewish and Muslim nonprofits, and convening an interfaith advisory council, as reported by The News last month.
The group is still in formation but will be chaired by Reverend Jacques DeGraff, a minister in Banks’ neighborhood of Harlem who alongside the chancellor helped found the all-boys schools network Eagle Academy. DeGraff, a Fox News contributor, made national headlines in 2021 for likening an ablaze Christmas tree outside the conservative broadcaster’s offices to Pearl Harbor.
