NYC councilwoman rips 'modern progressivism' after anti-Israel high school riot

A councilwoman in New York City blasted "modern progressivism" after a mob of students at a Queens high school rioted against a Jewish teacher for apparently attending a pro-Israel rally.

Blaze News previously reported that a number of students at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica rioted after they discovered one of their teachers had attended a pro-Israel rally on October 9, holding up a sign that read, "I stand with Israel."

The teacher's attendance at the rally just two days after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Jews was apparently just too much for the pro-Palestine students to handle.

Republican New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino shared with Fox News Digital that she "was sickened by what I saw at Hillcrest HS, but sadly I was not surprised."

"Our education system is fundamentally broken, and anti-Semitic riots like this are sadly the natural result of years of woke leftist indoctrination replacing real education."

"Allowing progressives to gain total control over our institutions was always going to lead to tragic outcomes; they’ve been working to instigate a cultural revolution here for decades, and now those efforts appear to be bearing fruit."

Just after 11:00 a.m. on Monday, students reportedly rushed into the hallways of the school to protest the teacher for simply expressing support for Israel. The protest appeared to have been pre-planned, and it quickly devolved into a riot.

The pro-Palestinian students attempted to get into the teacher's classroom despite school staffers blocking the way to the room.

By 11:20 a.m., the NYPD showed up to break up the riot.

The riot comes almost two months after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people in Israel, taking another 240 hostage. The horrific attack was the deadliest one against Israel in the nation's history, and it was the largest targeted attack against Jews since World War II.

"For students in a New York City public school to feel empowered to riot and hunt down a Jewish teacher, something has gone severely wrong, and it's gone wrong for a very long time. And if it's allowed to continue, 'who we are' is going to be a raving mob of children who've been brainwashed into a poisonous hateful political ideology, forever," Paladino wrote on X.

"It was terrorism, plain and simple. Terrorism is violence against civilians to achieve a political goal. And that's what we saw in one of our public schools, against a teacher whose only offense was being Jewish and peacefully expressing her support for Israel on her own time."

"These terrorist students stalked her online, organized in chat rooms, then sparked a riot and hunted her down. She had to be barricaded in a locker room as the rioters raged in the hallway and attempted to gain access to her," Paladino's post said.

It is unclear whether the students will face consequences for the riot.

However, Paladino has called for all faculty to be suspended until a full investigation has been carried out; the firing of any staff member found to be involved in the riot; and the immediate expulsion of students who took part in the riot, according to Fox News Digital.

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