Thursday, February 26, 2026 - A New York College professor has been placed on leave days after she sparked massive backlash for making “abhorrent” comments about black students on a hot mic during a virtual meeting.
Allyson Friedman, an associate biology professor at Hunter
College, was caught inadvertently interrupting a black eighth-grade student’s
concerns about the potential shutdown of her Upper West Side public school
during a public Community Education Council meeting on Feb 10.
“I write to share an update about actions that Hunter
College is taking as a result of the incident during a recent virtual meeting
of the New York City School District 3 Community Education Council in which
abhorrent remarks were heard coming from a district parent who also is a Hunter
employee,” Hunter College President Nancy Cantor wrote in a statement on
Wednesday.
“As I shared earlier, we are investigating this matter under
the university’s applicable conduct and nondiscrimination policies,” Cantor
wrote.
“Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employee has
been placed on leave,” the statement continued.
The CUNY school previously said it was “reviewing”
Friedman’s conduct after the tenured professor’s comments quickly circulated
online and sparked widespread fury.
“They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” Friedman
was heard saying while her mic was unknowingly unmuted, according to a
recording of the meeting posted online, which she had attended as a parent of a
public school student.
“If you train a black person well enough, they’ll know to
use the back,” she said. “You don’t have to tell them anymore.”
She seemed to be referring to a comment made by Reginald Higgins, the school district’s interim acting superintendent, who spoke about scholar Carter G. Woodson, the father of black history, earlier in the meeting.
“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,”
Woodson wrote in his 1933 book “The Mis-Education of the Negro.”
Two other adults in the virtual meeting quickly called out
the professor, while others sat shocked with their hands over their mouths.
The entire meeting went dead silent for about 10 seconds
before the moderators apologized to the student and urged her to continue.
Friedman later excused her language by stating she was
explaining systematic racism to her own child, “by referencing an example of an
obviously racist trope,” adding her full remarks weren’t completely audible due
to a microphone mistake.
“My complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are
not my own, nor were they directed at any student or group,” Friedman told
the New York Times.
Public officials quickly slammed the professor’s conduct and
urged Hunter College to take immediate action.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman Sigal called the
comments “outrageous.”
“It is particularly despicable that these vile words were
uttered while children were giving testimony at the meeting, exposing them to
this hatred,” he said.
“She still isn’t fired???” Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards Jr. also wrote on X.
“She shouldn’t be near any child at all. Her words are
abhorrent and racist. I feel awful for all those children who witnessed this.
Hunter shouldn’t allow her to continue in her role until a full investigation
is complete,” United Jewish Teachers president Moshe Spern wrote.
Cantor added in the statement announcing the decision to
place Friedman on leave that counseling services and an employee assistance
program were available for members of the school community who feel they need
support.
“This painful incident unfolded at a meeting where Black
History Month was being celebrated, and the pernicious and enduring effects of
anti-Black systemic racism were being discussed, especially with regard to the
role of educational institutions in addressing them,” Cantor wrote.
“Hunter has long embraced such a role, which requires
constant vigilance to remain attentive and responsive to the ways in which we
continually draw and redraw discriminatory social lines.”
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