After stating last spring that the “entire culture” of the Townsend Harris robotics team should be subjected to what he called an “autopsy” of its practices and its treatment of female team members, Principal Brian Condon has told The Classic that things have changed in the way the team operates. STEM Assistant Principal Abid Choudhury, who helped conduct the “post-mortem,” said that while he found no systematic sexism on the team, he has decided to increase administrative oversight of the team. 

The review of the team began as a result of a trip last March, where the robotics team, the Steel Hawks, entered the Hudson Valley Regional competition with a robot named “Hawk Tuah” and a bumper slogan “SCORE ON THAT THANG.” Both the name and the slogan reference a viral video about oral sex. After the team faced criticism from the broader FIRST Robotics community on ChiefDelphi.com, Mr. Choudhury said the name was “inherently” sexist and “inappropriate.” He called for a “public apology [from the mentors] to show accountability,” and Mr. Condon said the incident left him not “satisfied” with the “entire culture” of the team. Mr. Condon said that, after the season ended, he would examine “many aspects of the culture in robotics,” and “the composition of the leadership team.”

In an interview with The Classic on January 7, Mr. Condon said that all three mentors of the robotics team, science teachers Joel Heitman, Joshua Raghunath, and Micheal Quach, voluntarily “tendered their resignations [as robotics mentors] last year” after the season ended. “It’s better to leave a position on your own than to be forced out… so they chose to resign,” Mr. Condon said.

Since then, Mr. Heitman and Mr. Raghunath have returned to serve as mentors for the current season, and Mr. Quach has decided not to return. 

Mr. Condon said, “to even be considered for a reinstatement to that position,” the mentors were required to complete a training regarding the city’s “Respect for All” program, which according to the NYC Public Schools’ website, aims to “foster and maintain safe learning environments that are supportive, inclusive, and free from discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of any kind.” Mr. Choudhury confirmed to The Classic that both Mr. Raghunath and Mr. Heitman completed a virtual training on this topic. 

Mr. Condon said that he is confident in this year’s leadership and that he expects more “interpersonal skills” moving forward. “I don’t expect to see negatives again,” he said. 

“Prior to the season, mentors and school leadership reflected on the importance of clear communication, thoughtful supervision, and alignment with school values,” Mr. Heitman said. “Those reflections have shaped how mentors approach the season, including being more intentional about role clarity and modeling professional conduct for students.”

Mr. Raghunath, who has been seen in recent weeks wearing a custom robotics team quarter zip with the nickname “Rated R” on its back, did not return any of three requests for comment.

In an email to The Classic, Mr. Quach said he declined the opportunity to remain on the team and would redirect his energy towards other school activities. “I wasn’t comfortable with my role and position [on the robotics team],” he wrote.  “I was discouraged because it sometimes felt that my time, efforts, and input were not fully appreciated or valued.” 

In an email sent on January 26, Mr. Heitman said he would not comment on Mr. Quach’s claims. Mr. Choudhury said that Mr. Quach decided to leave his position on the team “out of his own volition” and “not as a consequence of something that he did.” 

“It’s good to take a step back and evaluate where you are, and give yourself a chance to reflect once in a while,” said Mr. Choudhury, who sat down with The Classic for interviews six times from December to February. 

Beyond addressing issues of leadership, Mr. Choudhury said he conducted “exit interviews” with many students on the robotics team at the end of last season, including some regular members and all the student leaders. Although he previously said that he had received feedback from girls on the team feeling overlooked, he concluded in his review that this was not the result of any “explicit practices” or intentional exclusion by the mentors. Mr. Choudhury said, “it wasn’t like the coaches were doing something specific to make that happen.” Instead, he attributed the sentiment to the broader male-dominated environment of STEM fields. 

According to Mr. Choudhury, his investigation found no “bevy of sexist instances on the team,” but identified a “generally lax behavior,” where existing guidelines, including a team handbook laying out how both students and mentors were expected to conduct themselves, were not enforced or actively discussed. “The distribution of this handbook hadn’t been practiced for the last couple of years at least,” said Mr. Choudhury. 

“While the investigation did not find systemic issues, that does not mean students’ concerns were unimportant or without impact,” Mr. Choudhury wrote in an email to The Classic on February 25. “If a student feels overlooked or unheard, that warrants attention. The weekly check-ins and clarified expectations were put in place to ensure accountability and transparency moving forward. The weekly check-ins are with the team leaders and random members of the team, so that I can keep a finger on the pulse [of the team].”

Those check-ins, he said, are part of the overall administrative intervention. There will be meetings with mentors and students separately, he said, so the administration can be made aware of “any updates” and can establish “clear communication guidelines and reporting guidelines.” 

Although Mr. Choudhury said that students should hold each other accountable, “adults are the most responsible,” and with the increase in administrative oversight, Mr. Choudhury said that in the future, he would also hold himself accountable because he will be “actively overseeing the team.” 

Mr. Heitman confirmed in his January 8 email that “The team has reintroduced its handbook,” which he said “outlines expectations for student behavior, as well as mentor commitments to the team and the broader school community. The goal is to ensure that expectations are clear and shared, and that the team environment remains respectful and inclusive for everyone involved.”

On February 26, senior Kelly Vu, the robotics team president, told The Classic in an email that the team also distributed a Code of Conduct, which she said, “was signed by students and mentors at the start of the Build Season, and was a mandatory requirement in order to join the team.” She wrote that “failure to uphold behavioral expectations would result in removal from the team.”

In addition to these changes, Mr. Choudhury told The Classic in an interview on December 4 that he expects this year’s coaches to release a public statement “that addresses whatever harm was caused” by last year’s choices in the robot name and bumper slogan. 

Mr. Heitman contradicted Mr. Choudhury’s assertion that mentors would release a public statement from the team, writing in his January 26 email to The Classic that the statement addressing last year’s events went to the administration and veteran team members, but won’t go any further. “There are no plans to publish that statement beyond administration and the team,” he wrote, “as the purpose was to support students and establish clearer norms within the team and not a public service announcement.”

According to Mr. Heitman, at the first team meeting in September “prior members of the team were present as statements were also made.” He said these communications focused on “accountability, expectations, and setting up a constructive tone forward to the start of a new season.” 

The Classic interviewed Mr. Choudhury again for clarification on February 9. He said that the contradiction between his expectation and Mr. Heitman’s statement was a result of miscommunication. He said that after the mentors had issued the statement to the team and administration, they requested to keep it internal. He said that request was made after The Classic emailed the mentors for comment on January 16. “They don’t wish for it to be published publicly, and I gave them permission to do so. Because the harm was caused primarily to the members of the robotics team, and that’s how they saw it. And I gave them permission to proceed that way,” he said. 

Though Mr. Choudhury said he had not seen a “bevy” of sexist instances on the team, one alumna, who requested anonymity, reached out to The Classic after last spring’s article was published to share experiences of what she called a “sexist environment” on the team. This alumna graduated in 2020, while Mr. Heitman and Mr. Raghunath were coaches but before Mr. Quach was hired. She said that when she and other girls raised concerns about their treatment and lack of recognition with coaches, they felt dismissed. “Essentially, the toxic culture we expressed our concerns about was brushed under the rug,” she said. The girls were told to “be more assertive” rather than having the team’s environment addressed, she said.

She connected this culture to the “Hawk Tuah” incident, saying “naming the robot after this phrase is indicative of the culture the team perpetuates and the lack of awareness the coaches possess.”

The Classic previously reported on Project Roebling, a summer program for girls seeking more support. The program’s advisor, social studies teacher Blayne Gelbman, said girls “had gone to the principal and felt that there wasn’t enough opportunity specifically for girls to learn the skills in order to move up in leadership.” Mr. Condon confirmed the program, which began in 2022, stemmed from “a concern around girls being fully included.”

The alumna said she reached out because she “relates to the girls who spoke to the principal” in 2022. “It bothers me that even to this day, nothing has changed even when me and my friends first started this discussion with the coaches [more than five years ago],” she said. 

In a YouTube video published on February 2 to the Steel Hawks channel, Mr. Heitman interviewed senior vice president Vidhi Patel and senior head of the CNC (Computer Numerical Control) subteam Vaibhvi Patel as a part of the running series “Regularly Interviewing Student Engineers (R.I.S.E).” Early in the video, he asked both girls about “being in what some would say is a male-driven area.”

Vidhi said she felt “equally represented” and “seen.” Vaibhvi called the CNC subteam “female-dominated” and said female inclusion makes that subteam “unique.”

Kelly said that experiences like those shared by Vidhi and Vaibhvi show an important “contrast” with the “team environment from five years ago.” 

This year, eight out of ten executive leadership positions are held by female students, according to the team’s Instagram.

“Because of our students in leadership and efforts from our mentors, we are constantly improving the team environment and sustaining it for future seasons,” Kelly said

“I am proud of this year’s student leadership team. The tone they have set has been collaborative, respectful, and inclusive across grade levels,” Mr. Choudhury said. “The interactions I have observed among students reflect a healthier and more intentional team culture.”