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1 year ago
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This is the shocking moment a Jewish teacher was forced to hide in her classroom at a high school in Queens as students rampaged through the hallways and demanded she be fired for attending a pro-Israel rally.
In the video students can be seen waving Palestine flags and jumping around hallways inside the school.
Another clip showed students running wild throughout the corridors of the school during the ordeal.
Students inside Hillcrest High School in the New York City borough rioted inside the school for two hours on Monday.
The incident came about after images surfaced of a Jewish teacher at the school attending a pro-Israel rally.
One educator at the school told the Post that administrators and officers with the NYPD rushed to the aid of the teacher and locked her room door
In a statement to the the New York Post, the teacher, who wished not to be identified revealed that she had been working as an educator for 23 years in the New York City public school system.
For the last seven years, her time has been spent working at Hillcrest High School.
'I have worked hard to be supportive of our entire student body and an advocate for our community,' she said.
'[I] 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.'
A senior student speaking to the outlet said that it was the teacher's support for Israel that ignited the aggression seen at the Queens high school.
'The teacher was seen holding a sign of Israel, like supporting it,' they said.
'A bunch of kids decided to make a group chat, expose her, talk about it, and then talk about starting a riot.'
A four-day cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war began Friday in Gaza as part of an agreement that Qatar helped broker.
Twenty-four hostages were freed, including 13 Israeli citizens, 10 Thai citizens and one Filipino citizen, Qatar said. Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners later in the day.
In one video that has been shared on social media sites like TikTok and X, pupils can be seen waving Palestine flags as they frequently jump up and down in the corridors
Other images show how some students took it upon themselves to ruin a bathroom
But the bloody war has taken the lives of thousands and led to an eruption of violent protests and clashes between pro-Palestinian and Pro-Israel supporters.
The riot at Hillcrest high school was well-documented online with the chaos captured in a series of photos and videos.
They showed large crowds of students congregating inside the hallways of the schools, chanting and running wild.
In one video that has been shared on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) students can be seen waving Palestine flags while jumping up and down in the corridors.
Other images show the destruction of bathrooms as others attempted to barge into the terrified teacher's classroom as she hid from the rioting mob.
An educator speaking to the outlet said administrators and officers with the NYPD rushed in to give the teacher aid after she locked herself into the classroom.
According to New York City Councilman James Gennaro, the NYPD sent officers to the school and brought in their counterterrorism bureau to investigate.
'The counterterrorism task force is not engaged unless they believe it is potentially a serious situation,' Gennaro said.
NYPD officers escorted the teacher safely out of the building, but senior students revealed to the post that they know her phone number and home address.
Critics have blasted the group of students with one person saying they're 'embarrassed to be part of this generation.'
One educator at the school, seen here, said that administrators and officers with the NYPD rushed to the aid of the teacher and locked her room door
The actions of the construction workers has since been praised on social media
'This school needs to be investigated for the education failure.'
Another commented: 'Expel them all.'
It comes amid a growing number of anti-Semitism in the city following Hamas' deadly October 7 attack on Israel.
Last month, two construction workers lashed out a man who they caught ripping down fliers showing Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
The men jumped into action after witnessing a man pulling down fliers taped to light posts on the corner of 67th Drive and 109th Street in Queens.
One of them can be heard saying: 'I'm not Jewish, he's not Jewish. It doesn't f***ing matter. This is f***ing the USA, this is New York City.
'You don't have a f***ing right to touch that s**t. This is a free country, you can wave your Palestine flag and say death to the Jews or America whenever you want. But we can put up signs. Okay.'
Following this, there was also a large scale protest pro-Palestine protest in Brooklyn with thousands of protestors shutting down the famous Brooklyn Bridge.
The 'Flood Brooklyn for Palestine' protest attracted thousands of protesters holding up signs reading 'Free Palestine' and 'Zionism is Terrorism'.
Other placards read 'Biden is funding genocide' and 'occupation is a crime.'
Jewish people had been warned to avoid the area for their safety due to the protest, that also attracted members of the orthodox Jewish community who led the protest.
English (US)