DOE muzzles mom
District candidates told: Ignore ‘race’ query
A city Department of Education official muzzled a parent leader who dared ask a question about an incendiary children’s book on race during a public forum — an act the gagged mom called “outrageous” censorship.
The DOE stopped Danyela Souza Egorov, a member of the Community Education Council, after she read a set of questions about the book “Our Skin,” which tells kids that white people invented the concept of race to claim they are “better, smarter, prettier, and that they deserve more than everybody else.”
The forum on Monday — with about 400 people tuned in — was
designed to air the views of two candidates vying to become superintendent of Manhattan’s District 2 schools and give parents a voice in the selection process.
But it turned into a lesson on the prohibition of free speech.
“How do you feel about the book ‘Our Skin?’ ” Egorov asked at the Zoom forum. “Do you think whites invented racism? And if so, when? What century, roughly? At what age do you feel children should be introduced to such material without direct parental involvement?”
Before Kelly McGuire, the current superintendent, or Sean Davenport, who is com- peting for the job, could answer, a DOE employee stepped in.
“I’d like to interject and say that this could be a racially charged question,” said Bibi Matadin, a DOE parent leadership liaison, stopping the candidates from answering.
Egorov explained that the question, among others asked, had come from community members and was selected by CEC 2, a parent advisory group for part of the Upper East Side and most of downtown Manhattan. “Some families think it’s racially charged to put this book in front of our kids,” she argued. “Our Skin,” intended for kids ages 2 to 5, has been distributed to city schools and is on a kindergarten reading list. The DOE has said it isn’t part of a “prescribed” curriculum. Chien Kwok, another CEC member, demanded to know who ordered a shutdown of the discussion. Matadin said it was the executive director of the DOE’s Family and Community Empowerment office, Cristina Melendez.
“Now a bureaucrat at the DOE is going to decide which questions our families can ask or not?” Egorov asked. “It’s outrageous.”
Egorov emailed Schools Chancellor David Banks: “I grew up in Brazil under military dictatorship, but until last night I had never been told by a government official that I could not ask a question at a public forum.”
After The Post questioned the DOE about the incident, Egorov and other CEC members received an apology on Thursday from Desmond Blackburn, deputy chancellor of school leadership.
Blackburn had the two District 2 candidates answer the questions in writing, but neither criticized the attack on whites.
Davenport, who is black, wrote, “Racism does exist,” and he has been victimized by it “on many occasions, quite possibly by this question.” McGuire, who is white, said he believes schools “are the most productive places to discuss the text,” guided by trained principals and teachers.
Egorov told The Post she was disappointed in the answers.