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Parents call for city to forgo any Upper West Side school closures after racist remarks in meeting
By
Jessica Gould
Published Mar 10, 2026
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PS 9
By
Jessica Gould
Published Mar 10, 2026
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Groups of Upper West Siders are calling on the city’s education department to hold off on plans to close two middle schools and relocate another in the neighborhood after racist comments made by a parent during a public meeting roiled the community.
Proposals, which were posted online Friday, call for ending the middle grades at Manhattan School for Children on West 93rd Street and at PS/IS 191 on West 61st Street. The plan would also move the Center School, which is co-located with PS 9 on West 84th Street, into the PS/1S 191 building to free up space at PS 9, which is overcrowded.
The education department previously included the Community Action School on West 93rd Street on the list of potential closures.
But it was removed last week after a white parent was caught on a hot mic making racist comments during a public Zoom meeting while a Black student from Community Action School testified against its closure.
“They’re too dumb to know they’re at a bad school,” the parent, Alyson Friedman, could be heard saying at the meeting in February.
Friedman, a parent at The Center School, also said, “If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back, you don’t have to tell them anymore,” a quote she misattributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Friedman has publicly apologized for her comments.
Still, the episode added to the fury over the school closures and relocation proposed for the neighborhood. The education department closes and relocates schools in neighborhoods across the city every year. But each one can be a third rail for policymakers, as they often highlight issues of race, class, equity and power.
Education department officials have said the Upper West Side closures are necessary to address low enrollment, while the relocation is crucial to comply with limits on class sizes.
Education department spokesperson Chyann Tull wrote in a statement that the closures were "the result of more than a year of conversations" with stakeholders in the district.
“New York City Public Schools has a responsibility to thoughtfully plan for the long-term strength and sustainability of our schools to give students access to robust academic programs," Tull said. "These proposals are intended to strengthen elementary programming in the district while ensuring our students are enrolled in well-rounded middle school options."
Still, many parents and students in the neighborhood are campaigning to stop the changes, which would start going into effect this fall if they’re approved.
Parents at Manhattan School for Children said the school is uniquely inclusive, particularly for students with physical disabilities, and should remain open.
Stephanie Abel said her fifth-grade son with a rare neuroimmune condition lives on a ventilator and uses a powerchair. She said the school is both physically accessible and culturally inclusive, and her son has “thrived” there, even learning to play the violin with his feet.
“MSC [Manhattan School for Children] has shown what is possible when inclusion is real, and it's ingrained in what they do every day, and closing [the middle grades] would send a message that students like my son are expendable,” Abel said.
Deranie Henderson, a Black parent at The Center School, said the PS/IS 191 building isn’t the right fit because it lacks key facilities, including an auditorium for its theater program, and outdoor space for whole-school recess, which is part of the school’s mission.
She said – because the Zoom comments were painful for all the communities with changes under consideration – the education department should pause plans for all of them, and work towards a collaborative solution.
“I feel like those accommodations should apply to all the schools involved because every school building has Black and brown children that those comments affected and were harmful to,” she said.
Several parents at the schools said they were particularly upset because the proposals were released after the middle school application deadline passed.
“This process seems rushed unnecessarily,” said Mike Robles, a parent at PS/IS 191. “It’s a bit of the rug being pulled out.”
The planned changes were set in motion while Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels was serving as superintendent of District 3, which includes the Upper West Side, and many of the parents hold him responsible.
Henderson said she and others are calling for the time for true community engagement that “allows the collaboration of all communities involved to find solutions that work toward the best outcomes for our children.”
“This has not been that,” she added.
Hearings on the proposals are scheduled in advance of a vote by the education department’s oversight body, the Panel for Educational Policy, in late April.
Tagged
Politics
education
manhattan
new york city
Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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