Hunter College, a top public university in New York City, said on Sunday that it would review whether “abhorrent remarks” made by a professor at a public meeting violated the institution’s policies.
The comments were made at a Feb. 10 Community Education Council meeting at which public school families on Manhattan’s West Side debated a contentious proposal by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to close or relocate several schools.
As one student, who attendees said was Black, spoke out to praise her teachers and lament the potential shutting of her school, another attendee — identified as Allyson Friedman, an associate professor at Hunter College who was attending as a public school parent — cut in.
“They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” Ms. Friedman said, according to a recording of the meeting.
She was attending virtually and was unaware that her microphone was turned on. “If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back,” Ms. Friedman continued. “You don’t have to tell them anymore.”
She appeared to be referencing a comment made earlier in the meeting by the local school district’s interim acting superintendent, Reginald Higgins. He had mentioned Carter G. Woodson, the scholar known as the father of Black history, who said, “If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told.”
Shock, confusion and outrage swept across the faces of parents attending the meeting. Then one interjected, using the professor’s name: “What you’re saying is absolutely hearable here. You’ve got to stop.”
Hunter College confirmed that Ms. Friedman had made the comments.
Ms. Friedman, a tenured associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, said in an emailed statement on Sunday that she had been “trying to explain the concept of systemic racism” to her child, who was in the room with her, “by referencing an example of an obviously racist trope.” But she said that only part of that conversation was audible because of the microphone mistake.
“My complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are not my own, nor were they directed at any student or group,” Ms. Friedman said. “I fully support these courageous students in their efforts to stop school closures.”
“However, I recognize these comments caused harm and pain, while that was not my intent I do truly apologize,” she continued.
Many parents were unaware of the episode until Dr. Higgins emailed them to criticize an adult for “demeaning assumptions” about the ability and potential of Black children. (He did not identify Ms. Friedman or her specific comments.)
After a recording of the meeting was posted online, the local conversations about the incident were amplified across the city. Nearly 20 percent of students in the public education system in New York, one of the world’s most diverse cities, are Black.
Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president, denounced the remarks as anti-Black, calling it “particularly despicable” that children were forced to be exposed “to this hatred.”
Eric Dinowitz, the chair of the City Council’s education committee and a former teacher, said that “these racist comments are horrendous,” and urged the Education Department to “address broader issues of racism within our school communities.”
The schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, who is Black, said that the city was working “to repair the deep harm that these words have caused,” adding that the behavior violated the education system’s values.
“Our students and our community deserve better,” Mr. Samuels said in a statement on Sunday.
The fallout extended to Hunter College, which is part of the City University of New York and is not under the control of the chancellor. The college said that while Ms. Friedman’s remarks were made as a parent and private citizen, it was reviewing the incident under its conduct and nondiscrimination rules.
“We expect our community members’ actions and words to comport with our institutional identity, values and policies,” the university said in a statement. “We stand firm in our enduring commitment to sustain an inclusive educational environment.”
The Mamdani administration’s plan for the schools on Manhattan’s West Side had already been viewed as an early test for the new chancellor, who — along with the mayor — has promised to make parent input a priority. Mr. Samuels formerly led the district and initiated the plan.
The city recently proposed moving a popular school, the Center School, which educates fifth to eighth graders, to a new campus; the school that occupies the building now, P.S./I.S. 191, would lose its middle school grades. Under the plan, the school system would close two other middle school programs at the Community Action School and the Manhattan School for Children, which have low enrollment.
Many families have said that students would suffer from unnecessary disruption, would lack space for thriving programs or would lose close-knit communities if their schools close.
As school districts consider closures and mergers, the issue of race often emerges — because schools with lower enrollment often educate larger numbers of Black and Latino students.
Rita Joseph, a City Council member who is Black and chairs the committee on higher education, said that the episode exposed a “deeper and enduring issue within our New York City public school system: systemic racism that continues to show up in policies, practices and as we saw, in rhetoric.”
“We cannot talk about school closures, equity or educational opportunity without confronting the culture and systems that devalue Black students and communities,” she said.
Troy Closson is a Times education reporter focusing on K-12 schools.
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