I did TOO hear teens’ gripes, Blaz insists
A DAY LATER, Mayor de Blasio still isn’t listening.
Hizzoner patted himself on the back Friday morning for his performance at a gun violence town hall he held with students Thursday, bristling at media coverage of how he was more concerned about getting kids to answer one of his wife’s questions than he was about hearing their concerns.
“I really respected what they said and I frequently asked them what they thought, what they wanted to see different,” the mayor said on his weekly radio appearance, before jetting off for a five-day trip to Maryland, Texas and Washington, D.C.
But it was the students themselves who said they didn’t think the mayor cared about what they had to say about hot-button issues like metal detectors in their schools — including three of whom spoke to the Daily News Thursday night and two more on Friday.
“He didn’t really hear us out the way he should have,” Andrea Colon, 17, who had asked the mayor to invest in counselors instead of school safety agents and metal detectors, said. “He was sort of dismissive in a way.”
Throughout the evening, de Blasio mentioned Thrive NYC, the mental health initiative spearheaded by his wife, who attended the meeting. At one point, he stopped asking to hear the students’ questions, instead insisting they answer McCray’s questions about what mental health services they needed.
“I actually hadn’t heard of the Thrive program before,” said Colon, a senior at Rockaway Park High School For Environmental Sustainability. “He kept on bringing that up. But my school definitely does not have that.”
Colon said her school has 300 students and just two guidance counselors — who are also tasked with things like helping students with their schedules.
“I had the conversation today with my guidance counselor, who I am close with, and she said, ‘I do wish I had the chance to do more mental and emotional health things, but I can’t because I have so many other things on my plate,’” she said.
Estefany Valera, a 17-year-old student at the Brooklyn School for Social Justice, said students kept calling for more counselors and fewer school safety agents — but that the mayor answered by urging better relationships with the agents, which she called “extremely dismissive.”
“His only way of seeing safety was putting more police officers in our schools,” she said. “Me and other young people were like, we want to be safe from all forms of violence — and that includes the interactions with people who are allowed to have Tasers and handcuffs in our schools every day.”
Bernard Gassaway, a longtime educator and the former principal of the long-struggling Boys and Girls School in Bed-Stuy, called the meeting a “missed opportunity” and a “bad look” for de Blasio.
“They appreciate what you call active listening, and I don’t think that was present last night,” he said.
He argued the mayor should hold meetings in each borough to better get a handle on the opinion of 1.1 million students.
“They’re gonna tell you how they feel. You may not appreciate it or agree with it, but that’s still how they feel,” he said. “The mayor may have underestimated the power and the knowledge and the information that children have.”
NYC Parents Union President Mona Davids said the town hall didn’t make her feel confident about the city’s handling of school safety.
“The de Blasio administration has been deaf to the concerns of both parents and students,” Davids said. “And that was clearly on the display at the meeting.”
She also questioned the presence of his wife — whom de Blasio recently argued ought to be paid.
“He keeps trying to promote his wife instead of listening to the concerns of students,” Davids added. “But she is not our mayor. She does not have mayoral control of our schools. He should focus on supporting the students of New York instead of promoting his wife.”
McCray’s presence also stood out to Gassaway.
“I understand that her initiative is mental health,” he said. “But it’s as if he’s preparing her to succeed him when his term limits are up, that she’s next. And I just think, again, you’re being opportunist. That’s the problem — and kids see through this.”
A rep for the mayor, Olivia Lapeyrolerie, said the first couple “engaged in an honest and meaningful discussion, and tried to hear from as many students as possible in the time we had. As with all of our town halls, we are taking this feedback into consideration to see how we can improve our policies moving forward.”