Bayside School Council Wants NYC To Adopt Anti-Hate Bill: Report

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Members of a northeast Queens school council want schools citywide to address the rise in anti-Asian racism in New York City this year.

Almost all of the members of Community Education Council District 26, or CEC D26, which oversees public schools in northeast Queens including in Bayside, voted to approve an anti-Asian racism resolution on Oct. 21 that the council had been drafting for several months, the Queens Chronicle reported.

“In light of what’s happening everywhere and in our community in regards to anti-Asian hate, this was the best time to basically call upon the [Department of Education] and chancellor in how they prompt diversity and anti-bullying,” CEC 26 President Alan Ong told the Chronicle, alluding to the spike in racist and violent attacks on Asian communities amid the pandemic.

Citing NYPD data, the Chronicle said that 125 AAPI people have reported crimes in the city this year as of August, which is about 363 percent higher than the number of anti-Asian incidents in all of 2020. The Chronicle previously reported that anti-Asian hate crimes increased as much as 1,900 percent in New York alone amid the pandemic.

CEC D26 hopes that its resolution will help teach children across the city to respect each others' cultures through six actions: passing a bill to teach about AAPI history, running AAPI heritage month programs, and expanding workshops on cultural awareness, implicit bias training, and dual-language programs in Asian languages. The resolution also calls on the city to develop a system for where people who cannot speak English can report bullying incidents.

While the council that passed the resolution presides over northeast Queens, Ong said that the resolution is aimed at the entire city, so that the anti-racism measures are taken throughout every school in every borough.

“We want to not have to worry about bullying or hate. Hate is just not tolerated,” Ong told the Chronicle. “We want to foster our kids to grow up to be aware of everyone’s culture.”