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NYC schools chancellor admits to messaging mix-up over city's storm response
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Oct 3, 2023
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Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Oct 3, 2023
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New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks admitted Tuesday that administration officials misused the term “shelter in place” last week when informing the public how to protect themselves during a storm that paralyzed major parts of the city, including roads and the subway.
Banks' comments marked the first time a high-ranking public official acknowledged missteps in the city’s handling of the storm.
“We should have had stronger communication on that,” he said in response to a reporter’s question at a news conference with Mayor Eric Adams at City Hall.
“All of our kids were safe,” he added. “We had no issues with any of our kids. But I think this incident does suggest to us that we needed to have a clearer level of communication all the way through.”
Adams has been heavily criticized for his handling of the severe weather event – forecast days in advance – with many saying his administration failed to provide sufficient warnings about the impending rainfall.
As Friday’s flash floods engulfed major swaths of Brooklyn and Queens, the mayor and emergency management officials told people who were at work or in school to “shelter in place,” but did not elaborate on exactly what that meant. Parents who had slogged through wet and difficult commutes to bring their children to school were left wondering how they would pick them up amid rolling road closures and subway shutdowns.
Among the critical questions was whether the mayor should have closed schools before the storm hit the city. During multiple interviews on Friday afternoon, Adams staunchly defended his administration's response, including the decision to keep schools open.
But following Banks’ remarks on Tuesday, Adams appeared to acknowledge that certain city functions could have been improved, saying city agencies perform a post-mortem review after every major incident.
“We sit down and say, ‘Hey, what could we have done better? How do we do it better?’” Adams noted. “And we have never proclaimed once that we are perfect.”
On the day of the storm, both Banks and Adams told the public to “shelter in place,” which school officials typically understand as part of a lockdown procedure. Principals and teachers later said they were confused by the directive.
After his comments, Banks issued a statement saying he will convene a Department of Education-wide review on the school system's response to the storm.
“Our families and staff deserve clear, direct guidance, which is why, just like City Hall is doing, I am convening an agency-wide ‘after action review’ to identify policies and protocols that must be updated to account for increasingly frequent events like Friday’s rain or the air quality emergency this summer,” he wrote in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The use of the term “shelter in place,” he added, was “ill-fitting to last week’s circumstances.”
Jessica Gould contributed reporting.
Tagged
education
new york city
DOE
schools
storm
subway
environment
Politics
eric adams
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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