Chancellor David Banks at a congressional hearing Wednesday defended the New York City public schools’ response to antisemitism and tensions fueled by the war in Gaza, as Republican lawmakers pressed the leader of the nation’s largest school district to crack down on students and faculty.
Local public schools have recorded 281 incidents since Oct. 7, including 42% that were logged as antisemitic and 30% were Islamophobic, Banks told the Republican-led U.S. House education subcommittee. In response, the chancellor said administrators are trying to balance discipline with chances for children and adults to learn from their mistakes.
“We cannot simply discipline our way out of this problem,” Banks said at the Washington, D.C. hearing. “The true antidote to ignorance and bias is to teach.”
Banks testified alongside the leaders of two other school districts, Montgomery County, Maryland and Berkeley, Calif., and a free speech expert from the American Civil Liberties Union, who added context of students’ constitutional rights at school. The same congressional committee pushed for the ousters of presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, who faced backlash for tepid responses to whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates school rules.
In a series of rapid-fire questions, Banks said that most Jewish people experience the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitism, and as such it is not allowed in the city’s public schools. He also condemned Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 as a “terrorist” attack and said terrorism is never justified.
The chancellor, while emphasizing the need for education to combat hate, disputed that schools are not taking disciplinary action. At least a dozen staff and school leaders have been removed, disciplined or are in the process of being disciplined, Banks testified. Another 30 students have been suspended, he said.
City schools have come under fire over a number of episodes, including a student protest last fall that targeted a Jewish teacher at Hillcrest High School in Queens for her pro-Israel activism days after Hamas’ attack. Banks at the hearing condemned the painful episode as antisemitic, adding students were suspended and the principal removed mid-school year for a “lack of leadership and oversight.”
Then-Hillcrest principal Scott Milczewski was transferred to Department of Education central offices, and several Republican lawmakers slammed Banks for the former school administrator’s soft landing. The teacher involved, Karen Marder, was offered a school transfer but remained at Hillcrest, a decision Banks lauded as “heroic.”
“How can Jewish students feel safe at New York City public schools when you can’t even manage to terminate the principal of ‘Open Season on Jews High School?'” said Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.).
“It’s not Open Season on Jews school,” said Banks, a Hillcrest alum. “It’s called Hillcrest High School. That’s the name of the school, and at that school, we considered his leadership not strong enough to be the leader in that school.”
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik accused the chancellor of trying to mislead Congress about the Hillcrest principal’s employment status, which Banks denied.
“That’s concerning to me that you have him in a senior position. And what’s very concerning about these hearings is that we’re getting lip service but a lack of enforcement, a lack of accountability,” Stefanik said.
In addition to Hillcrest, staff at Origins High School in Brooklyn filed a lawsuit last week with allegations of antisemitism and a lack of school and district oversight to stop it. Individual teachers have also come under fire for social media posts, including an image supporting Hamas paragliders on Oct. 7, and a classroom map of the Middle East that omitted Israel.
Banks said it is not only his job to mold good readers and writers, but “good people” who show respect and humanity.
While city schools have involved the NYPD when hate crimes were committed and retrained principals on the discipline code, the district has also partnered with Jewish nonprofits and museums and an interfaith advisory council, and focused on education, Banks said. Work is underway on a Holocaust educator guide, two new curricula on Jewish history and culture and hate crimes, and principal training on navigating difficult conversations.
“Firing may be appropriate in certain circumstances,” Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. “But I think we need to think about how we can address antisemitism — change hearts and minds, make children safer — without only looking to the most punitive tool in our toolbox.”
“You do not lose your constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gates — you have the right to your opinions to share your opinions, so long as they are within the bounds of the school context. But the school must act,” he cautioned, “when there is a hostile educational environment.”
Meanwhile, some parents, teachers and civil liberties group have accused city education officials of not doing enough to protect pro-Palestinian advocates who have spoken out against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“Chancellor Banks should resist pressure from the House Committee to conflate political criticism with hate,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Committee leaders are using these McCarthyite hearings to intimidate school officials and press them to chill student advocacy and views they don’t like.”
Late in the hearing, Chancellor Banks turned the tables on Congress to put a call to action and bring people together to talk about solving antisemitism.
“This convening for too many people across America in education feels like the ultimate ‘gotcha’ moment,” Banks said. “It doesn’t sound like people who are actually trying to solve for something that I believe we should be doing everything we can to solve for.”
Dozens of those critics, led by a group called NYC Educators for Palestine, staged a die-in Wednesday afternoon outside the Education Department’s lower Manhattan headquarters. A handful of protesters in white jumpsuits splattered red and ash-colored paint laid out on the stairs, behind a flipped classroom desk surrounded by children’s books, stuffed animals and school supplies.
The demonstration was endorsed by several groups including a parent-led education council in Brooklyn’s District 14 and Movement of Rank and File Educators, a caucus of the United Federation of Teachers.
Protesters cited episodes of anti-Palestinian hate, including a “doxxing” truck that circled a Queens high school in February, after a Palestinian-American math teacher came under fire for anti-Israel advocacy. And the parent body, Community Education 14 said they received death threats and even a box of feces to their elementary school office.
“We have seen a constant live stream of dead babies on our social media, this impacts us collectively, and it personally impacts the Palestinian students and educators who have lost family in this genocide,” teachers said in an open letter to Chancellor Banks, which they read aloud. “These hearings, and the culture of intimidation they create, make our schools and communities less safe.”
Well into the protest, three cops carried out a Manhattan parent on the Education Department’s Citywide Council of High Schools by the arms and legs after she joined the demonstration with a hostage sticker. The member, Rachel Fremmer, said she was there for a regularly scheduled board meeting and had not planned for the disruption, but carries the poster with her at all times.
“I want them to see it,” she said of the hostage sticker. “I’ve had people literally cover their eyes when I show them a hostage photo. You can’t discuss and debate an issue if you can’t agree on the facts.”
