Did an Elite NYC High School Violate the City's Guidelines by Observing Moment of Silence for Gaza?
It’s been about a month since The Beacon School, a prestigious and liberal-minded public high school in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan, held a moment of silence in memory of 62 Palestinians killed during clashes along Israel’s border with Gaza. The event sparked immediate controversy, with Fox News reporting that the school had “[held] a moment of silence for Hamas.” On May 16th, Hamas official Salah Bardawil claimed that some 50 of the 62 fatalities were members of the Palestinian Islamist group; at least 10 of them belonged to Hama’s professional internal security service. It is unclear whether the Beacon School has held similar commemorations for, say, refugees the Turkish military has shot along the country’s border with Syria, or the uncounted civilian victims of US military operations overseas. Still, a parent and student petition in favor of the commemoration got “hundreds” of signatures, according to press reports.
A June 18th letter from the Zionist Organization of America to the Chancellor’s office of the New York Public school system now alleges that the incident was a violation of city’s own guidelines. “[O]fficials at The Beacon School violated Chancellor Regulation D-130, which prohibits school facilities from being used for partisan politics of any sort, write ZOA president Mort Klein and Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA Center for Law and Justice. “As you know, the regulation reflects New York City’s legitimate interest in preventing its public educational mission from getting ensnared in partisan politics.”