A New York City school is facing a massive backlash over antisemitic material being taught to students in the classroom. Following reports about two teachers pushing pro-Hamas rhetoric to third-graders, parental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) has launched a campaign to pressure the school to stop allowing teachers to foist their bigoted views on students.
Nicole Neily, president of PDE, wrote a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, announcing a new ad campaign intended to prompt the school to address the issue.
@DefendingEd started an ad campaign this morning with mobile billboards calling on PS 705 in Prospect Heights to stop teaching Jewish hate after their teachers — Giuseppe Rebaudengo and Anna Battaglia — forced third-grade classes to sing anti-Israel songs following the Hamas terrorist attacks.
Tell Superintendent Lindsey that it’s time to get antisemitism out our schools – Giuseppe Rebaudengo and Anna Battaglia have got to go!
🚨NEW:@DefendingEd started an ad campaign this morning with mobile billboards calling on PS 705 in Prospect Heights to stop teaching Jewish hate after their teachers — Giuseppe Rebaudengo and Anna Battaglia — forced third-grade classes to sing anti-Israel songs following the… https://t.co/jrghbTBiPc pic.twitter.com/guSQy4h9rx
— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) February 14, 2024
This move comes after the New York Post reported details on how these teachers are spreading anti-Israel propaganda among their young students.
A pair of Brooklyn public school teachers are plying kids as young as eight with anti-Israel propaganda, drawing lessons from a company that offers material twisting the classic “Wheels on the Bus” song into a hateful screed that cheers the eradication of the Jewish state, The Post has learned.
In Giuseppe Rebaudengo and Anna Battaglia’s third-grade classrooms at PS 705 in Prospect Heights, young minds are being molded into “social justice warriors,” learning from materials that morph the beloved 1939 kiddie tune into a Palestinian resistance cry called “The Wheels on the Tank.”
“The wheels on the tanks go round and round, all through the town. The people in the town they hold their ground, and never back down,” the sick new rhyme goes, illustrated with Palestinian kids hurling rocks at Israeli tanks.
“The bombs in the air go whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, all through the skies. From every river to every sea the people cry, cry, cry. Free Palestine till the wheels on the tanks fall off.”
The antisemitic version of the song was written by Akiea Gross, founder of Woke Kindergarten, an organization dedicated to infusing far-leftist ideology into school curricula.
Neily told RedState that the fact that such an ad campaign is even necessary is problematic.
She said:
It shouldn’t be controversial to ask the nation’s largest school system to address antisemitic behavior by teachers on its payroll. If anything, it’s appalling that such a request needs to be made in the first place.
She continued, pointing out that “[t]here have been numerous incidents of concern in NYC schools in the wake of October 7, and the silence from administrators is deafening. Students and families deserve better, and we will not apologize for demanding that.”
PDE has also created a petition to crack down on antisemitism in the school.
