Students at a New York City school were photographed wearing ethnic identifying tags while the school was encouraging them to join ethnicity-based “affinity groups,” The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Students at Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a private kindergarten through 12th grade school, were photographed wearing name tags indicating their ethnic identity, including “Black” and “Jewish.” according to In addition, the school encouraged students to join what it called “affinity groups,” which organized students by race, religion, or cultural identity.
A school spokesperson told The New York Times that the name tags had only been used at the beginning of the previous school year and that it was a mistake.
The school also encourages social groups for parents, and according to The New York Times, school officials emailed families in June inviting them to “listening sessions” aimed at educating parents about raising children during “conflicting times.”
According to the NYT, the event was organized by a social group for “families of color,” but was canceled and replaced with a meet-up for non-white parents only, to which Jewish parents were also welcome, the Times reported.
Fieldston School Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Department explain Groups are a way for “students to form community with other students who share their experiences based on their identity.”
Affinity groups available to middle and high school students include “Boys of Color,” “Gender and Sexuality Alliance,” “Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People,” and “Women of Color Alliance.”
Younger students at Fieldston School participate in a special curriculum called “CARe,” a school spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Conversations on Race, Ethnicity, Ethics, and More (CARe) curriculum has students “practice identifying microaggressions in the safe spaces of CARe affinity groups,” which are also separated by ethnicity. (Related article: Columbia University suspends three deans after allegations of inappropriate writing surface)
A $55,000-a-year private school in New York City that promoted divisive identity politics through its curriculum, even going so far as to require students to wear name tags identifying their ethnic background, is now having to manage tensions arising from its own teachings. pic.twitter.com/ImvpXbkUZS
— Yang (@AxiomAmerican) June 27, 2024
ECFS tuition fees for the 2024-2025 academic year are $65,540 per academic year. according to Go to the school website.
The school faced backlash from pro-Palestinian students in the spring, according to The New York Times, after students vandalized the school with anti-Israel graffiti in June, leading one Jewish student's classmates to call him an “ethnic cleanser” and a “colonialist.” according to In the New York Post.
New York City universities are dealing with pro-Palestinian protesters wreaking havoc on campus. Protesters at Columbia University were arrested on charges of vandalism and barricading staff inside a building, but the charges were dropped by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office.
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