Elite Fieldston students drunkenly spew N-word in vid
An ultraprogressive Bronx private school has been roiled by a racist student video gone viral, the Daily News has learned.
A video in which white students from the elite Ethical Culture Fieldston School repeat the phrase “crack n----r” has prompted an all-hands response from school administrators, including student body meetings, letters to parents and alumni — and a disciplinary crackdown on kids involved.
The incident is the second scandal over a racist video to rock a posh New York City private school in 2019. A blackface video emerged at Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Country Day School in January.
In a copy of the Fieldston video provided to the Daily News, three apparently intoxicated male students can be seen at an off-campus party mugging for a cell phone camera while lying on the floor and drinking from cans. They make the shocking and offensive remarks as they joke around with each other.
One student addresses the person recording the video, saying, “on three, crack n---r.” Then the kids repeat the phrase and laugh.
“Crack n----r, you know what it is,” another one of the teens says.
School sources said the video was made several years ago but went viral among students in February, prompting school officials to take disciplinary action against the kids involved.
School officials sent a letter to parents on Feb. 13 addressing the matter, in which they refer to another incident of racist language recorded on video from a previous school year.
“We are reckoning with another incident of the use of racist language in our Upper School community recorded on video,” states the letter addressed to the Fieldston Upper School community from school leaders Jessica Bagby and Nigel Furlonge. “The anguish and outrage so many of us feel cannot be overstated enough.”
“We have a strict no-tolerance policy when it comes to acts of bias and hate speech,” the letter continues. “We are taking decisive action with the students who have violated our community expectations.”
The letters included links to information on the history of the N-word and information on student events to discuss the matter.
School sources said the kids in the video were disciplined around the time the letter was sent and have yet to return to classes. They said the video was made two or three years ago and that the students were currently upperclassmen.
In an email sent to alumni on Monday, Bagby addressed the issue again.
“We recently learned about the existence of video made a few years ago that involves several ECFS students and one former student using racist, homophobic and misogynistic language in clear violation of our community values and expectations,” Monday’s letter states.
“One student withdrew from Fieldston. The consequences for other students involved have been differentiated based on their responsibility for video, its content and how it was used,” it continues. “We will make no further comment on the disciplinary process as it is confidential and involves teenagers.”
A spokesman for Fieldston provided the two letters to a reporter requesting comment, declining to comment further.
The incident marks the second time in recent weeks that an elite private school in New York City was rocked by a racist video.
A video in which students appeared in blackface provoked a similar reaction at Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Country Day School in January.
Students at Fieldston were rattled to see a racist video scandal coming to their school, which is known as a paragon of progressive values.
“The majority of the school is like, ‘How could you even say something like that?’ ” said one black Fieldston student.
The student said Fieldston teachers were being very attentive and giving students of color a great deal of consideration in the wake of the video.
“I’m not surprised,” the student said. “A lot of things have been happening with the private schools in general, like Poly Prep.”
The student said that some white Fieldston students have sought to minimize the significance of the video since it was filmed some time ago.
“They’re saying it was a long time ago, kids-will-bekids, boys-will-be-boys kind of thing,” the student said.
The teens pictured in the video weren’t otherwise outwardly racist, the student said.
But the age of the video raises another question, the student said.
“The biggest issue would have been, obviously, why wasn’t this problematic to you before?”