Race, Class and P.S. 20's Controversial Principal
This weekend the Local’s Andy Newman followed up the extensive blog reporting on P.S. 20 he’s been doing with an article about Sean Keaton, the elementary school’s love-him-or-loathe-him principal. The story describes Keaton, who missed the Fort Greene school’s graduation last week—he was barred from attending by Dept. of Ed officials owing to assault charges…
This weekend the Local’s Andy Newman followed up the extensive blog reporting on P.S. 20 he’s been doing with an article about Sean Keaton, the elementary school’s love-him-or-loathe-him principal. The story describes Keaton, who missed the Fort Greene school’s graduation last week—he was barred from attending by Dept. of Ed officials owing to assault charges he’s facing for allegedly beating up a teacher’s union rep—as being at the center of a race-class divide: “In the resurgent brownstone bastions of Fort Greene, Boerum Hill and the fringes of Park Slope, affluent parents with one set of expectations for their children’s education — progressive, hands-on, emphasizing freedom — are clashing with longtime, working-class residents who prefer stricter, more structured educational models like the one Mr. Keaton favored, leaving principals caught in the crossfire…At P.S. 20, some of the conflict has been tinged with race: Mr. Keaton is black, as are three-quarters of the students, while many of the families who said they found him hard to work with are white. Much of it has to do with class. Some comes down to personal style: Even many of Mr. Keaton’s supporters say he can be abrasive and inclined to escalate rather than defuse tensions.” In a poll of Brownstoner readers a couple months ago that ran before the assault charges, 47 percent of you said Keaton should be removed from the school; 17 percent said he should stay; and 36 percent said you didn’t know enough about the issue to have an opinion one way or the other.
As Cultures Clash, Brooklyn Principal Faces Assault Charges [NY Times]
PS 20: It’s a Long Story [The Local]
Time for PS 20 Principal to Get The Boot? [Brownstoner]
Photo from the Bridge & Tunnel Club.
DIBS- well, its an honor to be on the same side with you! 🙂
He thinks he’s some sort of standard bearer and hasn’t figured out that what made him so interesting to NY Magazine is long gone. Now he’s just a caricature of himself- and a poor one at that.
well pHed,
Consensus among the FG Stroller Set was that Mr. Keaton had to go in order to make PS20 a better school. The principal is GONE; a casualty of the FG Tribe Wars(though entirely self inflicted). What happens to him from here, is up to the courts. But he is no longer the principal. He’s GONE.
I don’t think its mudslinging to let folks know that a teacher with a history of assaulting students teaches kindergarten children. That certainly relevant.
Moving forward… Was the principal really the ONLY problem with PS20? Now that he is gone, will folks like, PutnamD, send their kids to PS20?
Of course the What is going to come after you on that one, bxgrl. But he won’t have an intelligent argument. he’ll just call you a bunch of names.
So does anyone have the real details on Segarrra? Or is he going to be ripped apart over allegations that no one seems to have the details on or resolution to?
Is this supposed to be some sort of illustration of a race war? No matter what he does, Keaton gets a pass because he’s black? Yes, What- that is such an intelligent way to go through life. Just goes to show how little respect you have for your own people. Any bad behavior is ok, because you can use color as the excuse? I don’t know a single Black person (both friends and in my family) who would agree with you- they have much higher expectations and goals. And achievements. Which they earned the hard way.
Knickerbocker, I think overall you have the right perspective. BUT, the only person who has actually said that Segarra deserved a beat down was the What, and he’s not very lucid today.
The primary color divide in FG is green(backs) not skin color.
The wealthy people stick together – and I would guess that at least 30 – 50% of wealthy parents in the FG district are mixed race couples (that’s a non-scientific guess, but it’s what I see on the playgrounds).
This issue is more about rich v. poor, not black v. white.
I grew up in Manhattan in the West 90s in the 1970s. Same gentrification story then as it is now in FG – except this time I am the one moving in, rather than being pushed out. This also happened to my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (family arrived in Ellis Is in 1910, we never left NYC – hence my ‘Knickerbocker’ handle).
This is the way it always goes in NYC. No one ‘owns’ their hood, we all rent. FG has only been a ‘hood’ for 40 – 50 years. Everything changes sooner or later. I’m totally used to this issue having lived on both sides of the debate (and having lived within 1/2 mile of the FG area for almost 15 years).
But the argument about PS 20 here seems to have shifted into whether two wrongs make a right (i.e whether Segarra deserved a beat down), not what’s best for the school and the ENTIRE community.
Frankly, it is difficult to understand how anyone can defend Keaton on the basis he was ‘provoked’. That is not a legal defense, and it is certainly not one that ever flew when I was in NYC schools (when everyone got in trouble).
All of them need to go to jail if any of this is actually true. But as previously said, the kids are the only ones who lose out here. Any efforts which prevent the situation from improving for the kids sake is another crime in progress.
Misogynistic, racist, homophobic, nativist, ablist.
The What really has the whole rainbow doesn’t he/she.
Why is the What still not banned?
Posted by: northsloperenter at June 29, 2009 2:19 PM
Why Dave is not banned for using the “N Word”??????!!!!!!!
Hypocrite!
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
Discipline Bitch, Discipline!
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
Posted by: Return of The What at June 29, 2009 2:17 PM
I believe that the “b word” is in the same category as the “n word” and the “f word”