Cynthia Nixon Shouted Down In School Diversity Fight

Gotham Schools:

A resolution to move an Upper West Side middle school passed on Wednesday night, but not before Cynthia Nixon -- "Sex and the City" actress, Alliance for Quality Education spokeswoman, and parent at the school -- was shouted down briefly during a heated public comment session.

Nixon was stepping into a fight that has been raging on the Upper West Side for months. The fight began as a discussion about how to deal with overcrowding at public schools but has spiraled into a raging debate about class and race and privilege in Upper Manhattan. Confrontations have gotten incredibly emotional -- and personal: On this site, a commenter posing as Cynthia Nixon's fictional son, Brady, from "Sex and the City" accused his "mom" of hypocrisy. And parents at Nixon's school, called the Center School, have charged another school's parents with racism and class prejudice, citing postings from last January on the Urban Baby Web site that called Center School students "thugs."

Read the whole story: Gotham Schools

Comments

[UncleMattt]

I just wanted to write everyone to say that recently I have started going back to therapy and realize now that many of my hostile comments were based on the fact that my children did NOT get into Center School. I felt that this was a reflection on my poor parenting. Everything I have heard about the Center School has been more than positive and I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my ridiculous and immature postings. I hope that the Center School community can forgive my behavior.

[Topfeeder]

Constant drama like this is part of the reason my kid went to private schools.

[Serinity]

The Center School is the FINEST middle school in the city. The children are supported, challenged and nurtured by the entire staff, led by an outstanding principal, Elaine Schwartz. Klein, and the rest of the Board of Ed, are lucky to have a model school such as Center School. They should be continuously supported and studied as an example of what excellence in education is suppose to be. I personally think that Elaine Schwartz should be on the VERY short list for Secretary of Education.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

School over-crowding in NYC is especially severe in Manhattan, and parts of Brooklyn.

Mayor Bloomberg has been handing out building permits like candy with no associated impact fees or build-a-school requirements, and schools Chancellor Klein couldn't forecast the need for an umbrella while standing in a monsoon.

Now, at least they have the cover of a collapsing economy to foist a draft capital plan with fewer new school seats than the loge section in new Yankee Stadium.

Klein's "small schools" mantra in ENGLISH means: jam two schools into one BUILDING , and let them fight over the cafeteria and the gym.

[jqmes]

she wasn't shouted down. she was cheered on.
misleading headline.

[NYCdowntown]

We at ps 150 in manhattan have some of the best grades in town! and our school, has the most diverse, best principal, and most amicable crowd of people of many backgrounds you can expect, we are mixed not only in c"colors/shades" what a stupid thing to say in 2008! but we are mixed in social statuses, and boy do we do excellent!

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Excellent-ly?

[AmberLyons]

As an Upper West Sider, I am very familiar with this debate. First, I must say that I am deeply saddened by the vitriolic smear campaign many of the PS 199ers have waged against the Center School and its principal Elaine Schwartz. This woman has devoted 26 years of her life to public education and to the Center School. She has worked tirelessly to provide excellent public school education in New York, for no other reason than she wants to improve the minds of children. She has been lauded for years, and her teaching styles have been written about in numerous educational journals, the New Yorker, etc. Read any guide to NY public middle schools -- the Center School is consistently ranked among the best.

People argue that she hand-picks students. Naturally she does -- this is what every admissions director (among the many other roles she is forced to assume in this woefully underfunded school) does -- and this is what makes for the wildly, wonderfully diverse environment of the Center School. Compare that with the overwhelmingly white PS 199 school.

[AmberLyons]

Continued.­...

My guess is that these accusations are coming from people who have been rejected, or fear that they migbt, the same people who took a picture of Ms. Schwartz and posted a flier all over the Upper West Side calling her a terrorist. Shame on you. Perhaps if you had been lucky enough to attend the Center School you might have learned one valuable lesson: respect your teachers. She's been doing this for longer than most of you (PS 199 parents) have been oarenting. She knows what's right. She knows that a school is part and parcel of its physical surroundings. She understands that going to school around older children, and around non-white children is valuable in itself. She understands the importance of tradition, and stability for children

The Center School and Elaine Schwartz are what make public education in New York great. This school (and principal) deserve laurels, not condemnations. Shame on all of you who have participated in this hateful campaign to drive The Center School out.

[fisharefreinds]

so whats all the yelling about?

[NYCdowntown]

You mean a nice segregated school!???

Shame on you guys

in this new era, you protect old ways of "separatism" SHAME on you

this will end and will never happen in my NYC

[ailbhe]

This is silly, no wonder standards of education have collapsed in the US, people are obsessed with 'diversity' over education.

The kid's don't care how many shades of pigmentation exist in the schoolyard, a decision should be made which best serves the children's education, not some adults fantasies about how the whole world should be remade into a Benetton ad.

[cityeducation]

What a shame! The only reason, to quote you: "kid's don't care how many shades of pigmentation exist in a schoolyard" is specifically when they are mixed ethnically early in their lives. Go across the river and you'll see Jersey school cafeterias with the white kids eating on one side and the black kids on the other side. You just don't get it. If we're ok with all white and all black schools in this great city, we'll be transgressing back to the 50's.

[Philmarlowe]

Why can't the 199 elementary children join the other elementary school 12 blocks away as Dschwarz states? It would seem better to send 5 year olds to a new school than uprooting middle schoolers from a school that has been their home for 2-3 years?

What is the percentage of African American children in PS 199 now? What is the Percentage of African American Children at the middle school? That is the best way to determine if this is about diversity or not. Numbers like that tend not to lie.

[ebaerren]

That was the easiest-going "shouting down" I've ever seen. But, whatever, she's a celebrity and this is Huffington Post...

[weatherwaxx]

I'm sure this gets Cynthia Nixon's publicity agent a bonus, but what the hell is it doing in the Politics section and why do you think national Huffpo readers have any interest in it?

Put it down in Entertainment where it belongs, or in NYC local news.

[rigormrtis]

Cynthia Nixon is the hottest lesbian I have ever seen.

[bigtroubletrin]

you should get out more...

[Quaoar]

You must not have seen very many.

[rigormrtis]

I will give you that. Here in Portland Oregon, even the straight women are pretty butch.

[dschwarz]

This is a local story for me. PS199 is my local zoned elementary school and I have been following this story closely, so let me try to correct a lot of the misinformation that has been spread by this article and others like it.

1. This fight is not about "diversity". The PS199 school district is majority-white, but then so is Center school. PS199 is an elementary school ,and Center school is a Middle school The two schools share a building, but the two student populations have minimal day to day interaction. It is unclear what is being "diversified" by Center's presence in the 199 building.

2. The main issue here is one of overcrowding and how to handle it. The population zoned for PS199 has been steadily increasing over the years, mainly due to new condo construction in the zone and no construction of additional schools in the zone. PS199 will be overcapacity next year if nothing is done to solve the problem. There are only a few alternatives, and all involve busing K-6 kids to a school out of their zone, so that the Middle school kids in Center can continue to be bused to the PS199 facility.

3. Center school has been offered a very suitable alternative location only 12 blocks North -- in another Elementary school building (PS9). I know this is an excellent location because one of my children goes to school there now. It is very similar to PS199 school facilities.

[PATina]

Thank you for being the voice of reason in this debate. As an outsider (different state)... the whole concept of two schools sharing one building is foreign to me. It also seems to make sense that the "tenant" school... is the one asked to leave. Also from my superficial research on the subject... it seems (and correct me if I'm wrong) that the Center school is more like a charter school... uses district funding... but is run independent of the district. If that's the case... I believe the district's needs supercede those of the charter school.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Thanks for the excellent recap.

My bias is that it is easier for grades 6-8 middle schoolers (age 11-13 ish) to get around town, than to expect elementary school parents who are ZONED for a given school to have to shlep all over.

Both schools are in a difficult situation -- in a shared building -- because of a number of factors NEITHER school or set of parents are responsible for, including: residential building boom, lack of new school construction, incompetent forecasting by the City, etc. -- all at Tweed or City Hall, NOT at PS 199/Center.

[Culturemaven]

The article was written by "Philissa Cramer" on the Gotham Schools website. She wrote another amateurish post a couple days ago, too. I wonder if she is a product of private or public schools?
In any case, this story would not have received any attention outside the immediate neighborhood had Cynthia Nixon not been involved.
Wish I was famous so I could have a bully pulpit at my kid's school!

[Metome]

Can HuffPo please post the video that is supposed to go with this article. It says on the main page, Watch Cynthia Nixon.....

[Temsi]

It says on THIS page, "Read the whole story here..."
It's a link to the story, which includes the video at the top of the page.

[Metome]

Thanks. Just clicked on the link for the video.