By Patrick Reilly
Mayor Eric Adams blasted the “vile show of antisemitism” at a Queens high school Saturday, hours after The Post exclusively reported that a “radicalized” mob of students rioted this week after learning a teacher attended a pro-Israel rally, forcing her to hide in an office.
Teenagers at Jamaica’s Hillcrest High School shut down the school for two hours on Monday as they marched through the hallways in a pre-planned protest after finding a Facebook post of the teacher attending a rally holding a sign that read, “I stand with Israel.”
The terrified teacher locked herself away as the students allegedly tried to barge in.
“The vile show of antisemitism at Hillcrest High School was motivated by ignorance-fueled hatred, plain and simple, and it will not be tolerated in any of our schools, let alone anywhere else in our city,” Adams tweeted Saturday night as he shared The Post’s story on the incident.
“We are better than this,” Hizzoner added.
A senior at the high school told The Post that a group of students “decided to make a group chat, expose her, talk about it and then talk about starting a riot.”
Shortly after 11 a.m., hundreds of angry teens took to the hallways, rampaging through the building chanting, jumping, shouting and waving Palestinian flags or banners.
The teacher was able to take shelter in a locked office after school officials and the NYPD, which arrived at about 11:20 a.m., learned of the students’ plans.
“Everyone was screaming ‘(The teacher) needs to go!’” a ninth-grader said.
Videos of the commotion surfaced on social media. One clip revealed a water fountain ripped out in the hallway and shattered tiles in the second-floor boys’ bathroom, which students admitted they vandalized.
NYPD’s counterterrorism bureau was called to investigate a possible threat against the school, according to City Councilman James Gennaro (D-Queens), citing officials.
“No one should ever feel unsafe at school — students and teachers alike,” the teacher, who has been with the New York City public school system for 23 years and wished to remain anonymous, told The Post in a statement.
“I have worked hard to be supportive of our entire student body and an advocate for our community, and was shaken to my core by the calls to violence against me that occurred online and outside my classroom last week,” she said.
She has taught at Hillcrest for the past seven years.
“It’s my hope that in the days ahead we can find a way to have meaningful discussions about challenging topics with respect for each other’s diverse perspectives and shared humanity,” she continued. “Unless we can learn to see each other as people we will never be able to create a safe learning community.”
The educator was eventually escorted safely out of the building by the NYPD after order was restored
