The Jewish teacher at a Brooklyn high school who complained of swastikas, death threats, Nazi salutes, and Hitler-loving comments by unruly students was booted from the building this week — as Chancellor David Banks voiced concern for a student caught posing as the German tyrant.
Superintendent Michael Prayor made the decision to move global history teacher Danielle Kaminsky from Origins HS, just two days after she returned to work following The Post’s front-page expose about hateful incidents in the Sheepshead Bay school, the educator said.
“The superintendent does not want me in the district,” Kaminsky said.
Nathaniel Styer, a spokesman for the city Department of Education, said “teachers are only transferred upon their request.”
At a press conference Thursday, Banks sympathized with a teen who drew a mustache on his face, knocked on classroom doors, and gave the Hitler salute, according to reports and photos from security footage.
“We had one student who suffered greatly from that. His picture was in the paper,” Banks said, referring to a blurred photo of the unnamed youth. “I don’t want to get into particulars because of privacy issues, but he needed a lot of support.”
Kaminsky’s transfer follows the reassignment of campus manager Michael Beaudry, who also spoke up about the antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ hate he witnessed at Origins, and the lax discipline of students for bias and bullying.
“They’re trying to shut us up,” Kaminsky told The Post. “I live in constant fear for telling the truth.”
Kaminsky, 33, returned to her classroom Monday a week after The Post revealed the teacher’s complaints of harassment by a group of students who bullied Jewish teachers and classmates, especially since the Israel-Hamas war.
In prior, incidents, the Jewish teacher said a 10th-grader told her during a lesson on the Holocaust, “I wish you were killed.” Another boy called her a “dirty Jew,” and said he wished Hitler “hit more Jews.”
On Monday, When Kaminsky handed a teen his graded classwork, he looked at her and said, “I guess Hitler is really dead then – you’re still here,” she reported to school officials.
Administrators grilled her on the incident, and asked for students who may have overheard the offensive comment.
“They didn’t believe me,” she said. “I was constantly being watched. They walked me to the bathroom. I was not allowed to speak with any other teacher. I had to stay in my classroom.”
Most students were “unwelcoming” with remarks like, “I can’t believe you actually went to the media,” Kaminsky said.
But several kids were supportive, telling Kaminsky, “They believe me and my experiences.”
Prayor, who oversees 27 high schools in southern Brooklyn, and deputy superintendent John Banks, the former principal at Origins, visited the school on Monday, but did not check in with Kaminsky to ask about her wellbeing, she said.
Prayor and Banks did not return a request for comment.
On Tuesday, Kaminsky reported she found a chalkboard in her classroom marked “Free Pelstane” — misspelling Palestine twice.
Administrators dismissed it as “graffiti,” she said.
That day, the UFT rep for Brooklyn high schools, Charles Di Benedetto, gave her a list of three schools in Queens with openings for a social-studies teacher.
Kaminsky selected one, but still feels uneasy about the move.
“No matter where I go, I’ll be a target. I don’t feel safe anywhere in the DOE right now,” she said.
Di Benedetto said, “She has accepted a position in a Queens HS, and we will continue to support her during this transition.”
On Thursday, Banks downplayed the turmoil at Origins, calling news reports “blown completely out of proportion.”
“There was a teacher at Origins who did hear antisemitic comments from a handful of kids on a few occasions. That’s not right. We don’t want any of our teachers or any of our staff to hear any forms of bias,” said First Deputy Chancellor Daniel Weisberg.
Acting principal Dara Kammerman did not mishandle the situation, Weisberg said. “The principal made sure there were consequences for students who really stepped outside of the rules and exhibited bias.”
3 comments:
Horrible!! Schools are a horrible place, no one really learns anything in most schools. How does she cope with it?!
I can understand the concern about the kid. Any kid doing that is mentally screwed up and is going to get into very big trouble sooner than later.
"she doth protest too much"
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