Some background. A telling exchange recently occurred during a CEC 3 March 2024 Calendar and Business Meeting and it was caught on video. Two male members, Odabashian and Josh Kross, attacked their colleague, Yael Denbo, in terms that come distressingly close to antisemitism.
She said, “It makes me uncomfortable condemning organizations”, when pressed about Moms for Liberty.
Kross responds, “Can we condemn the Klu Klux Klan?”
Odabashian retorts, “We did condemn Hamas.”
Denbo replies, “They are a violent terrorist organization. We are comparing a group of moms to a violent terrorist organization?”
Unfazed, Kross says, “They’re both on the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) terrorist list”, to which Odabashian does an arm wave, signaling to Kross and nodding in agreement.
Odabashian continues, “We have condemned groups in the past and there’s no reason…”, then he’s cut off by an unhinged Kross, who rages, “As somebody with a ‘F**k Hamas’ sticker on my phone, and has done reporting on what Hamas has done [he works at Tablet Magazine], [Moms for Liberty] is not any different.”
CEC 3 is an affluent neighborhood with 70,500 Jews. Imagine being a Jew and paying taxes to float this operation. Imagine being a Jew and sending your kids to a school where those in charge think gang-rapists specifically targeting Jews are akin to those supporting parental rights.
Hamas is a designated terrorist organization elected by “Palestinains” and who recently raped and sodomized Israeli children and adults with knives and other weapons beginning October 7. Perhaps this is still occurring with the hostages they refuse to return in exchange for a ceasefire. Moms for Liberty is “dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”
Only the depraved could conflate the two.
Taxpayers spend $38,000 per New York City public school student, the highest in the nation (up from $28,000 during the 2022-2023 calendar year, despite outmigration and only because of absorbing the onslaught of illegal immigrant children and all the special needs they require). The prize - being in the bottom half of the country for reading and writing. This fortune is squandered; students have become so violent thanks to COVID lockdowns, DEI, and social media addictions, that they’re sending teachers and classmates to the hospital minus any repercussions. In fact, those removed for “safety transfers” are the victims.
One would think any of these critical issues would be the priority for the board members. Not once during the meeting were they discussed. No resolutions are being presented April 16 addressing plans to improve literacy and math, tamp down on violence, and isolate raging anti-semitic -- which is anti-American -- behavior.
“What I hear from District 3 parents are concerns about middle and high school admissions, the quality of academics and the safety of their children. This is what they would like the CEC3 to focus on; not a moms group from Florida”, says Denbo. She adds, “Claiming that Hamas and Moms for Liberty are in any way equivalent is disingenuous, and frankly disgusting. The SPLC, a privately funded organization, refers to the parents advocacy group M4L as a 'far-right' organization. Whether one agrees with that or not, it is nothing at all like Hamas which the US State Department classifies as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. A mom-led organization that you may disagree with politically and a terrorist group that kidnaps toddlers, rapes women and girls, butchers and tortures civilians, burns families alive and murders innocents, are not the same. Conflating them is disgraceful and deeply disrespectful to the Jewish families in our district, some of whom have loved ones that were victims of October 7 and family still being held hostage in Gaza and in harm's way in Israel.”
There are ten members on CEC 3. All were elected with less than 350 votes from a district with 197,826 residents. Kross received 205 votes, Odabashian secured 89. Here’s what you need to know. Denbo says the resolutions will likely pass. However, because it is the Mayor, Chancellor Banks, and teachers unions that control New York City’s public school complex, this might not amount to much. But, the fact that the majority of CEC 3, and quite frankly the other Community Education Councils, are flatly disinterested in improving academics, protecting America's children, and being mindful of taxpayers’ money, is deeply concerning. But then, if they think Hamas and Moms for Liberty are in any way comparable, perhaps the problem is with their educations as much as with that currently being offered to our children.
