Fariña: Rowdy class might be ‘interactive’

DAYS AFTER a student was stabbed to death in a city school, parents vented their fears Monday to Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Fariña — who told one worried mom a wild classroom might just be “interactive learning.”

The pair held an intimate town hall for public school parent leaders at a library in Harlem, where parents peppered them with questions about bullying, mental health services and better training for parents and teachers.

When one of the moms, Renesha Westbrooks-Martinez of Brooklyn, said she was concerned about classes she’d visited where the kids seemed out of control, Farina said, “I just want to be clear that a lot of what happens in classrooms that sometimes can look wild is interactive learning,” she said.

“Certainly, if kids are not being disciplined, are not paying attention, that’s on us. But a lot more parents need be aware that we want to hear a lot more talking in classrooms, we want to to hear students talking to each other, working together.”

Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union, said Fariña needed to stop making excuses. “Chancellor Fariña is refusing to acknowledge that we have many schools in crisis,” she said.