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New York City education officials have reversed plans to close an Upper West Side middle school after a mom’s racist comment during a public meeting thrust the school into the national spotlight.
Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels wrote in a letter to families Monday night that the city will not begin phasing out the Community Action School (CAS), as originally planned for next school year.
The move comes after a mother’s comment, which was made on a hot mic on Zoom while a Black student was speaking during a public meeting, went viral. “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” the woman said. Samuels said he and the local superintendent visited the school to meet with students and school leadership, and ultimately were persuaded to scrap the plan.
“First, the CAS community is continuing to process and recover from the racist and unacceptable remarks directed toward a CAS student at a [community education council] meeting in February,” Samuels wrote in the letter obtained by Chalkbeat. “And second, members of the school community shared a strong desire for stability as they move forward.”
Samuels, who recently visited the campus and met with students, added: “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.”
The decision represents a remarkable about-face. Samuels helped launch the closure plan in his previous role as the superintendent of District 3, a diverse chunk of Manhattan that spans from the Upper West Side to part of Harlem. The controversy represented an early test for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has vowed to listen to feedback from school communities in decisions that affect their schools.
City officials previously argued that CAS was too small to sustain, enrolling just over 170 students this year. They also pointed to standardized test scores that are below the city average. Families and educators pushed back against the plans, noting that the school added about 40 students this year and predominantly serves Black and Latino children from low-income families. Some parents said the school is an unusually supportive environment with strong social emotional programming.
The closure proposal earned more intense scrutiny after a February 10 public meeting in which Allyson Friedman, a mother from the Center School, a more affluent and majority-white school, was caught on a hot mic apparently insulting the intelligence of a Black student from CAS. (Friedman — whose school is part of a separate relocation plan — participated in the meeting on Zoom while the student was in person; several people in attendance said the student probably did not immediately hear the comment.)
After making the comment about “dumb” students, Friedman then appeared to misattribute and misquote Black historian Carter G. Woodson. “Apparently Martin Luther King said it: If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back door. You don’t have to tell them anymore,” Friedman said.
The District 3 interim acting superintendent had quoted from Woodson earlier in the meeting in his remarks about Black History Month.
In the 1933 book “The Mis-Education of the Negro,” Woodson described how racism in schools can perpetuate inequities. “If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door,” Woodson wrote.
A recording of Friedman’s comments captured international headlines and drew rebukes from Mamdani, Black parent leaders, and elected officials. In the aftermath, Hunter College placed Friedman on leave.
In an earlier email to Chalkbeat, Friedman wrote that she inadvertently unmuted herself during the meeting. “As a parent, I was trying to explain the concept of systemic racism by referencing a historical example,” she said. “My remarks were not directed at the student speaker, and they do not reflect my beliefs or values.”
Samuels previously announced that the Education Department would take action in response to the incident, offering support to the CAS community, expanding access across the system to the city’s Black Studies curriculum, launching training for families focused on combating prejudice, and devising a citywide plan to combat anti-Black racism.
The chancellor’s letter to families did not indicate whether two other middle school closure proposals under consideration in District 3 will move forward. One of those schools, the Manhattan School for Children, shares a building with CAS. The other proposal would close the middle school program at P.S./I.S. 191, which is majority Black and Latino. Meanwhile, the Center School, which Friedman’s child attends, would move into the P.S./I.S. 191 building.
Families at both campuses have raised concerns about the proposal. The parent association at the Center School previously distanced themselves from Friedman’s comments.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.