The City of Yonkers states that an after-action report regarding allegations of antisemitic remarks during a girls high school basketball game is coming soon from its Human Rights Office. However, at this time, no members of its Human Rights Commission have been consulted on this imminent report.
Game over
On Thursday, Jan. 4, Roosevelt High School hosted a varsity girls basketball game against Jewish day school, the Leffell School. The game ended prematurely when a Leffell player claimed an RHS opponent uttered antisemitic statements. While the RHS coach, Bryan Williams, heard no such slurs, he offered to forfeit the game nonetheless. While video of the game shows a calm exit with the players shaking hands and exiting the gymnasium, a commentary written in a school newspaper the following day exploded this incident into national headlines.
Leffell player, Robin Bosworth, penned the short letter recounting her experience at the game where she heard the phrase “‘Free Palestine’ and other antisemitic slurs.” This letter, along with allegations from an anonymous Instagram account, hit the front page of the NY Post that Sunday.
The reaction from politicians and pundits across social media was swift. Their clear condemnations of the reported rhetoric led the Yonkers Public Schools district and Mayor Spano to take action. They immediately terminated coach Williams and suspended one of its student athletes.
However, the RHS players, their parents, and coach Williams pushed back on this potentially premature punishment. Through numerous public interviews, members of the RHS community refuted the claim they uttered hate speech during the game. Some players and their parents even sat for almost two hours of live interviews on the topic. These refutations were further echoed by an investigation from the Yonkers branch of the NAACP led by President Frank Coleman.
The City of Yonkers administration as well as the Leffell School continue to assert the validity of Robin Bosworth’s claims.
Looking for answers
With back-and-forth allegations happening in the media–and no official investigative body releasing findings–an out-of-state observer decided to call the Federal government for aid. Screenwriter and conservative social activist Justin Samuels lodged a Title VI complaint with the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE). The USDOE thus commenced an investigation on March 11, 2024. Specifically, the USDOE investigation will “focus on whether the school responded appropriately to reports of discriminatory behavior, rather than on whether the behavior occurred in the first place.”
Here at home, more calls have also been made for a definitive report. Lifelong Yonkers-resident Eric Schoen attended the March 25 NAACP meeting to discuss the organization’s report on the RHS incident. Dismayed that their report only interviewed Roosevelt players and not the Leffell ones, Schoen and President Coleman only agreed that the City of Yonkers failed in waiting to gather the community for a resolution.
What investigation?
So, Eric Schoen brought this matter directly to the Mayor’s office. He questioned an unnamed spokesperson about the delay in the investigation. Schoen received the following response which he then published in an opinion piece in the Yonkers Times.
The City’s Human Rights Commission has been working on this for the past six weeks and will produce a response in about a week, in time to respond to the U.S. Department of Education inquiry into the event. We are expecting recommendations on the scope of the incident and connecting the students together with a facilitator.
We spoke with various members of the Human Rights Commission to ask about the aforementioned investigation. None had any knowledge of the work being referenced to in the spokesperson’s statement. We then reached out to COY Communications Director, Christina Gilmartin for clarification.
Mark Fang is working on an after-action report as he is entitled to do within the scope of his role with HRC. There should be no presumption that he won’t follow his normal protocols for his work and if that includes review/consultation with the board/HRC.
Christina Gilmartin – Communications Director for City of Yonkers
The Human Rights Commission in Yonkers has eight active members led by contracted attorney Mark Fang as its Executive Director. Members are drawn from throughout the community often appointed due to their work in advancing social causes. Hector Santiago is one such member who founded the “Stop and Shake” police program as well as walked from Yonkers to Albany to promote mental health awareness. Upon learning that Director Fang had begun a soon-to-be delivered report without addressing the committee, he said the following:
It’s very seldom that Mr. Fang ever consults with us as Human Rights Commissioners. However, being that this is such an important, as well as very public matter, he will do what is considered ethically right and bring it to the table for discussion. I’m looking forward to actual dialogue around the issue.
While the purported schedule hints at delivery of the Human Rights report to the USDOE next week, the inclusion of heretofore unaware commission members could delay that deadline. Unfortunately, whether it is another week or another month, the incident and reactions to the Roosevelt v. Leffell basketball game have had a life-long impact for some in the community.
