To The Members of the Townsend Harris High School Community:
Yesterday, May 7, 2019, the Townsend Harris High School community was recognized
by the New York City Department of Education as a Respect for All School of Distinction for
2019. This is a great honor and speaks well to the effort students, faculty, and families make to
ensure that people of all cultures, religions, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations are
welcomed, embraced, and respected by our school community.
In order to continue to live up to this honor, it is important that we remain vigilant and
actively address behaviors that are contrary to our community values. Sadly, I have learned that
examples of disrespectful, insensitive, and bigoted materials have been circulating on social
media among some members of our school community. This material is especially harmful to
our African-American students. Let me be clear, there is no such thing as an “N-Word Pass”. No
member of our community should be printing, distributing, or requesting, in writing, online or
otherwise, that they be given such a pass.
The use of this racial slur or any other, whether in jest or not, is unacceptable in any
circumstance. It directly violates the anti-discrimination policies set by the NYC Department of
Education (Chancellor’s Regulation A-832). It causes personal harm to members of our school
community, and it contradicts our students’ Ephebic Oath vows. Racial slurs also reawaken the
history of abuse, violence, and discrimination faced by people of color.
We will meet this challenge as we always do: by educating. Over the next few weeks,
members of our counseling staff will lead small group meetings with students to further address
this issue. We encourage all families to have open, intentional conversations about the negative
impact of discrimination and discriminatory language. You may find the following resources
helpful in facilitating these discussions:
Teaching Tolerance- A Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice)
Anti-Defamation League- Engaging Young People in Conversations Race and Racism
The New York Times- First Encounters with Racism (personal accounts from teenagers)
American Psychological Association- Discussing Discrimination
Sincerely,
Brian Condon
Principal
Robert Babstock • May 16, 2019 at 9:53 am
Communist gulag lovers have been ‘educating’ ‘community values’ into inappropriate thinkers for generations. They always ‘reeducate’ ‘thought criminals’ into people with state approved mental health. There now THHS ‘community’, don’t you feel safer knowing this unlettered, unqualified bureaucrat brandishes his hamfist at the first amendment?
Robert Babstock • May 16, 2019 at 9:46 am
The childish sjw gibberish of this ridiculous man is the proverbial cure that’s worse than the disease. Imagine giving someone so bureaucratic and censorious the reins to the premier Humanities high school in the country?
Robert Babstock • May 16, 2019 at 9:42 am
Coming soon to Townsend Harris: abolition of the classics. Why? Too subversive of mental health. Like The Prussians, we have to severely curtail student exposure to classical terms such as ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’.
Robert Babstock • May 16, 2019 at 9:23 am
Using alleged psychiatric concerns to take control of public speech was certaintly public policy in Communist Russia and is present policy in China. Never does the negligible pamphlet speech of this doggerel explain why he feels compelled to ‘educate’ people away from their most sacred free speech rights. What a stool sample of what used to be an admirable language.