Uproar at NYC’s Posh Dalton School After Faculty Issues 8-Page Anti-Racism Manifesto

One of NYC’s poshest private schools is in an uproar over an anti-racist manifesto signed by dozens of faculty members with a sweeping list of demands.

The Dalton School — which boasts stars Anderson Cooper, Christian Slater and Claire Danes as alumni — is wrestling with eight pages of “proposals” to overhaul the staffing, curriculum and treatment of black students.

Yearly tuition for grades K-12 at the Upper East Side institution is $54,180 a year.

The proposals — first reported this week by The Naked Dollar blog — grew out of the George Floyd police-brutality protests and long-simmering student complaints of racism at the prestigious school.

But some parents say the backlash has become oppressive.

“My ancestors experienced white supremacy by being slaughtered,” a Jewish parent told The Post. “The idea that being white automatically means you are privileged or a white supremacist is ridiculous. {snip}

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Those who disagree remain silent, the insider said. “Parents are terrified to speak up for fear of retribution. Parents are acting like spineless wimps.”

One Dalton father, who said he’s removed his children from the school as a result of the manifesto, said Dalton “has totally failed in its mission to uplift the very people it professes to help.

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The wide-ranging faculty demands include:

• Hiring 12 full-time diversity officers, and multiple psychologists to support students “coping with race-based traumatic stress.”
• Assigning a staffer dedicated to black students who have “complaints or face disciplinary action,” and a full-time advocate to help black kids “navigate a predominantly white institution.”
• Paying the student debt of black staffers upon hiring them.
• Requiring courses that focus on “Black liberation” and “challenges to white supremacy.”
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• Abolishing high-level academic courses by 2023 if the performance of black students is not on par with non-blacks.
• Requiring “anti-racism” statements from all staffers.
• Overhauling the entire curriculum, reading lists and student plays to reflect diversity and social justice themes.
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• Donating 50 percent of all fundraising dollars to NYC public schools if Dalton is not representative of the city in terms of gender, race, socioeconomic background, and immigration status by 2025.

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But Naked Dollar blogger Scott Johnston, who first revealed the manifesto Thursday, said of the demands: “Dalton’s teachers are refusing to come back until they are met.”

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Sources told Johnston that Dalton kids were made to watch a PBS video called Being 12, in which “white kids are shamed for the sin of their skin color and told they are complicit in perpetuating racism.”

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In revealing the turmoil, Johnston wrote, “The rich parents play the game. They go along with every progressive fad conjured up by the administration and faculty. Many embrace them.”

But the Dalton parent who spoke to The Post predicted that 30 to 40 percent of parents of kids in the Class of 2025 will pull them out of the school and transfer them as a result of the manifesto.

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