A professor’s racist comment caught on Zoom may have saved a Harlem school from closing — but parents say that is not enough
The Comment That Changed Everything
It was supposed to be a routine community education council meeting. A student took the microphone to make her case for keeping her school open. And then, on a Zoom call that was broadcasting the session, a Hunter College professor said something that would go viral within hours and ultimately reverse a city policy decision.
What Happened at the CEC 3 Meeting
In February 2026, eighth-grader students from Community Action School M.S. 258 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan spoke at a Community Education Council 3 meeting, trying to persuade the Department of Education to reverse a proposal to close their school. One of those students was the daughter of Janette Waugh. As the girl spoke, Hunter College Professor Dr. Alyssa Friedman, listening on Zoom, was caught on a hot microphone saying, according to NY1: “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school.” She then misquoted and misattributed Carter G. Woodson, saying, “Apparently, Martin Luther King said it, if you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back. You don’t have to tell them anymore.” The remark was racist, widely condemned and immediately went viral. Hunter College placed Dr. Friedman on leave. In a statement to the New York Times, Friedman said her “complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are not my own,” and that she was trying to explain systemic racism to her own child. She apologized.
The Reversal
On March 4, 2026, almost a month after the incident, Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels visited M.S. 258 and announced the school would remain open for at least the next school year. The Department of Education released a statement that said: “Our focus must be on healing, stability, and ensuring students feel safe and supported.”
Parents: Relieved but Unsatisfied
For Janette Waugh, the outcome brought mixed emotions. Her daughter had become, in her words, “the martyr to save the school because of what happened.” But she expressed concern about lasting trauma. “My daughter’s still gonna have trauma behind us,” she told NY1. Other parents were troubled by the message the reversal sent. “Community Action School is safe because we had a viral moment, not because our kids were being considered,” said Nicki Holtzman, a school leadership team member. The three other schools whose closures were proposed alongside M.S. 258 remain under threat.
The Larger School Closure Crisis
M.S. 258’s situation reflects a broader challenge facing the New York City public school system. Declining enrollment, driven by declining birth rates and pandemic-era population shifts, has left many buildings underutilized. The Department of Education has been working through a painful process of consolidations that communities across the city have resisted. The United Federation of Teachers has argued that school closures disproportionately harm low-income communities of color and that the city has not adequately invested in the supports those schools need. The New York Civil Liberties Union has documented how the school closure process has often lacked meaningful community input. What the M.S. 258 case adds to that history is a cautionary note: when institutional racism surfaces in a moment of community advocacy, it can become the event that forces a pause — but it does not resolve the underlying questions of resource allocation, enrollment planning and educational equity that made the school vulnerable in the first place.
