NYC principal Brett Schneider could be probed over student fight
The caught-on-video fight involving a reputed peace-loving Bronx principal and a student has been referred to the Department of Education for a potential probe, The Post has learned.
The Special Commissioner of Investigation for New York City schools made the referral, the office said this week, but a spokesperson declined to comment further.
The statement came after The Post reported that Brett Schneider, the woke educator helming Bronx Collaborative High School — who preaches about love and respect — was seen pushing a student outside the school and then putting his fists up as if ready to take him on.
The video of the skirmish posted to social media shocked parents and students.
The student whom Schneider targeted told The Post this week that Schneider also verbally threatened him.
“He pushes me and you can see it in the video. And I go flying. And then he tells me he’s going to knock me out just after,” Janel Adon said. “So I just don’t feel safe at this school with that principal because that’s crazy and he’s a horrible principal.”
The sophomore said he hadn’t talked to Schneider since the Oct. 24 incident and had avoided going to the literature class taught by the principal.
The after-school fracas happened when an adult relative of a girl at the school came to cause trouble after the student had milk dumped on her by a male classmate, students have said.
A sophomore told The Post that he was punched by the adult.
Adon admitted he hit the adult to defend his friend and said that’s when Schneider got involved.
He said a school administrator told his mother about that — but not that Schneider shoved or threatened him.
His mother, Clara Adon, was to meet with school officials Friday.
“Putting him in that school was the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life,” Adon said.
Schneider has been principal of Bronx Collaborative since it opened on the DeWitt Clinton Campus in 2013. The school has about 550 students.
Schneider boasted online that the school had worked to create an atmosphere “of love and respect. Kids are less likely to get into fights. When there is a fight, they know that they won’t be demonized … Finding creative responses to conflict can be life-changing.”
Schneider and the DOE did not immediately return requests for comment.