Hundreds of ‘Radicalized’ NYC High Schoolers Riot Over Pro-Israel Teacher, Who Had to Be Locked in Office for Safety
Hundreds of “radicalized” pro-Palestinian students rioted through the halls of a New York City high school for almost two hours this week after discovering that a teacher was pro-Israel..
The teacher had to be locked in an office for her safety as the mob tried to push its way into her classroom.
Hillcrest High School in Queens devolved into chaos shortly after 11:00 a.m. on Monday when students began protesting over a pro-Israel teacher’s Facebook profile photo, which appeared to be taken at a pro-Israel rally, the New York Post reported.
The photo showed the educator holding a poster reading “I stand with Israel.”
“A bunch of kids decided to make a group chat, expose her, talk about it, and then talk about starting a riot,” one student told the outlet
“Hundreds of kids flooded into hallways and ran amok, chanting, jumping, shouting, and waving Palestinian flags or banners,” the publication reported.
TikTok videos recorded by the students showed a huge mob of kids jumping, screaming, and waving Palestinian banners.
@hillcrestgoofyyaa.fights
Many students reportedly attempted to breach the teacher’s classroom while school staffers tried to block the entry.
“Everyone was yelling ‘Free Palestine!’” a senior told the Post.
“Everyone was screaming ‘(The teacher) needs to go!’” another one said. “They want her fired.”
Students vandalized multiple parts of the school, including ripping out a water fountain and destroying floor tiles.
School administrators and law enforcement caught wind of the planned riot just in time to rush the targeted teacher into an office and lock the door behind her. Approximately 25 NYPD officers responded to the school around 11:20 a.m.
The school and law enforcement officials were eventually able to get the students back into classrooms, NYPD sources said.
Cops managed to escort the teacher safely out of the building.
However, some students told the Post that agitators “found where she lives — her address, her phone number, her family and everything — her personal information.”
“I heard that some people already called her on her private phone and said some bad things,” an anonymous student said.
NYPD tapped into its counterterrorism bureau to investigate possible threats against the school, City Councilman James Gennaro said.
“Whether it was one student or multiple students who did or said something, whatever the trigger was, something happened. And I know from my many years on the City Council that the counterterrorism task force is not engaged unless they believe it is potentially a serious situation,” the Democrat councilman said.
The victimized teacher, whose identity has been protected for her safety, gave a statement to the Post after the incident:
I have been a teacher for 23 years in the New York City public school system — for the last seven at Hillcrest High School. I have worked hard to be supportive of our entire student body and an advocate for our community, and was shaken to my core by the calls to violence against me that occurred online and outside my classroom last week…No one should ever feel unsafe at school — students and teachers alike.
It’s my hope in the days ahead we can find a way to have meaningful discussions about challenging topics with respect for each other’s diverse perspectives and shared humanity. Unless we can learn to see each other as people we will never be able to create a safe learning community.
NYPD responded again to the school the next day, arresting an 18-year-old student for making threats in a group chat. The student was reportedly charged with aggravated harassment.
Gennaro, whose district encompasses Hillcrest, said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is giving teens a “a convenient excuse” to act out.
“It went from a teacher just changing a photograph on her social profile to this contagion of hate being released in the halls of Hillcrest High School,” Gennaro said. “It’s a sad commentary on the rancid hate that exists within the hearts of students — for Jews.”
While Principal Scott Milczewski said the school cannot release what the consequences for the involved students are, he said the DOE “has a discipline code and I promise you that has been followed.”
“At least three students who organized the riot face superintendent’s suspensions, the most severe punishment,” the Post added.
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