Timeline

2013

E. R. Murrow math teacher, Mr. Caruso, begins to have dialogs with students in his remedial classes to determine the barriers preventing them from getting into more advanced classes.  He recruits teachers into the Empowerment Team, a team he founded, whose goal was to determine the obstacles preventing student success and objectives to provide opportunities to those students to ensure their academic success.  A town hall is held, where student presenters articulate their struggles to teachers in the math department and ways teachers can help inspire students to become more academically successful.

2014

Talks of the Phoenix Project begin.  It will be a program to provide students struggling with math opportunities to break the remedial tracking trajectory and learn the skills necessary to succeed in advanced math classes.  After much dialog throughout the years among the principal of E. R. Murrow, Mr. Allen Barge, assistant principal of math, Ms. Huda Sami and director of the Phoenix Project, Mr. Roberto Caruso, the decision was made to start the program.

May 2017

To make it official, Mr. Caruso and some of his students proposed the Phoenix concept to the School Leadership Team (SLT) in May 2017.  It was unanimously approved by all members on the SLT to begin the program in September 2017.  In that meeting, students proposed that a lab class (the empowerment class), meeting once a week, in addition to their regularly scheduled math class, is what was needed to uncover the barriers hindering their academic success in math.  The goals of the empowerment class and the Phoenix Project presented to SLT were as follows:

•Students will believe in themselves and begin to actualize their potentials

•Students will act out less toward staff, in classrooms & hallways

•Increased motivation to become educated

•Increased scores on school and state assessments

•Foster greater sense of community within our school

In addition, the presentation included how Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs were going to be incorporated into the project’s goals, so that students could access the problem solving, critical/analytical thinking skills necessary for success in their academics, especially in math.  A special focus in that meeting was the importance of the class environment and the impact it could have on student motivation.  The vision to include a study lounge in room 328, the room designated to be the Phoenix room, was mentioned.  The purpose was to provide a space for students to do their work, read, and wind-down.  With a serious, yet comfortable vibe of a college study lounge, it would begin to change the perception in students’ minds on academics.  Studying and hard work would become alluring and enticing.  The study lounge did exactly that and all goals by June 2019 were achieved!  The only caveat was the growing and prideful Phoenix community was terminated by the administration's actions, detailed below, by September of 2019.

Fall 2017

The back of room 328 was a dumping ground for staff and students.  Old books and papers, dating back to the 1990s, were found in boxes and scattered around back in the back of the room.  Also present in 328 were broken down equipment and non-salvageable furniture.  Students who presented at the May 2017 SLT meeting to promote the Phoenix Project, helped Mr. Caruso throw away the aforementioned items to create a more welcoming space for freshmen Phoenix students and prepare the room for the study lounge. 

October 2017

At the Parent Orientation, in October, Mr. Caruso introduced himself and explained the details of the program he created, in which the students were enrolled. In addition to the four semester algebra class, the students had an empowerment class, which met once a week to uncover the obstacles/barriers in their lives preventing them from succeeding.  Principal Barge, present at that meeting, made a pledge to support Mr. Caruso’s program and his vision for a study lounge complete with couches, lamps, tables, coat hangers and computers. The couches and other furniture would be funded by raising money with Donors Choose. 

November 2017

Coat hangers were installed in room 328, the Phoenix Community Room, so freshmen could have a place to hang their coats as freshmen don’t have lockers.  Mr. Caruso also brought baskets with blankets in them for students to use when they felt cold in their community room.

February 2018

Six computers, founded with title-one money, arrive and are placed in the Phoenix Community Room.  Students begin to use the computers during their free periods and after-school to complete class/homework assignments from math and/or other classes.

Mr. Caruso hired an outside supervisor, NYU professor/social worker, to implement strategies to combat the feelings his students were facing, such as hopelessness and internalizations that they were not academically inclined.  Implementing strategies discussed in supervision, a positive energy of joy and laughter helped the students let their guard down and be more receptive to learn math. Helping the students heal their trauma was crucial to their success.

June 2018

Phoenix students celebrate their year of academic learning and accomplishments at an end-of-year party after school, including games, team-building activities and dancing.

September 2018

Mr. Caruso fulfilled his promise and students walked into a transformed community room.  The walls were freshly painted with calming/soothing colors, such as lilac, grays, light blue-green and an accent wall painted black, where students used it as a blackboard and began to write encouraging and inspirational messages to themselves and each other.  The room also included the study lounge promised by Mr. Caruso and supported by Mr. Barge.  It contained couches with throw pillows, lamps, tables, a bookcase, real and faux plants and a rock waterfall fountain to add to the calming nature of the room.  The tables and bookcase had calculus books and books from other advanced placement courses, such as statistics, U.S. history and science courses.  Scrap books for students to express their creative side were also found on the tables alongside markers, colored-pencils and crayons.  Frames of nature paintings and plaques with inspirational quotes were strategically placed throughout the room as well.  There were also student made posters on 21st century skills employers seek in job candidates.  The Phoenix community room was welcoming and inclusive.  It was a celebration of humanity, where students felt seen, valued, heard, respected, inspired and continued to thrive.

October 2018

Several incidents began early in the month and lasted through November, unfairly targeting the Phoenix students:

• False rumors began to circulate regarding the students behavior. The students and teacher, Mr. Caruso, were advised by the assistant principal of mathematics, Ms. Sami, to lock the doors to prevent rumors of Phoenix students being out of control and running in and out of the community room.

• Days later, in the middle of a lesson, a false report came in that a student was wielding a taser in front of the Phoenix community room. This led to security guards, deans, and Assistant Principal, Ms. Sami, to slam the back door open and barge into the community room, while class was in session, demanding information about who was the student with the Taser. The students are startled and Mr. Caruso is alarmed at the false accusations against his students.

An increase in security guard presence began to develop around the Phoenix community room, as false reports about the Phoenix students being out of control and a threat to the greater school community continued to be reported and spread. 

• Toward the end of the month, contractors came into the Phoenix community room while learning was happening, to tell the students they were being permanently kicked out of their community room.  Phoenix students were told the school wanted to build a courtroom to accommodate the mock trial students. The students were stunned and heartbroken at the sudden changes and loss of their beloved space.  Some students began to cry and had trouble processing the months’ continuous incidents and began to wonder and ask, “Why is the school treating us this way?”  Students in the program began to lose motivation to learn.  Phoenix parents/guardians began to contact Principal Barge, inquiring why the change in plans to the community room they were promised by him.  Mr. Barge did not answer any of their attempts to contact him.  Assistant principal Ms. Sami, tells Mr. Caruso to let his classes know that Mr. Barge will apologize to all Phoenix classes; he would say sorry for this sudden change of plans and for how the Phoenix students learned about the school’s altered vision for room 328.  Mr. Barge never appeared to any classes to apologize.

November 2018

On a day Mr. Caruso is at a professional development meeting, Phoenix students witness a substitute teacher, Mr. X. (named withheld to protect identity) allowing non-Phoenix students from the hallway to pour into the Phoenix community room at the start of C-Band class.  He did not give any instruction to any students.  Then some Phoenix students witnessed Mr. X. calling Ms. Sami on the phone, reporting to her that Phoenix students were completely out of control.  Ms. Sami ran to the room within seconds.  Mr. X. proceeded to blame the Phoenix students for inviting their friends into the room and disrespecting him; Phoenix students did not know many of the students Mr. X. allowed into the room.  Mr. X. wrote reports blaming the Phoenix students for their out of control behavior.  Student and paraprofessional witnesses in the room, stated Phoenix students were not out of control as reports written by Mr. X. had indicated.  

The deterioration of safety in the Phoenix community room, beginning at the start of October 2018 up to the latest aforementioned incident, initiated students to beg Mr. Caruso never to be absent ever again, regardless of reason e.g. meeting or sickness.  They feared Mr. X.’s return and his attempts to tarnish their reputation and gaslight them. With incidents against the Phoenix students mounting e.g. rumors Phoenix students are out of control, accusing them of being in possession and using a weapon, being told by contractors they were being evicted out of their community room to accommodate students from different demographic backgrounds, and then the Mr. X. incident, students felt targeted, confused and shaken-up.  Stunned Phoenix students began to state the program was supposed to help them with their trauma, however, the project had made them a target for school staff members who were traumatizing them.  Some students wanted out!  Others began to feel a sense of devastation and hopelessness and started to withdraw.  Other students reported that they felt all these incidences were just coincidences.  To bring back a sense of safety to Phoenix students, a community watch program was created by Mr. Caruso.  It consisted of non-Phoenix students who were allies and had friends in the program.  They protected the students from further false accusations. The watch program consisted of non-Phoenix Project students, friends and allies of the Phoenix students.  So while Phoenix students were learning, the Phoenix allies, when they didn’t have class, stood guard in front of the room. The area around the community room was kept clear of other students to prevent any disturbance that would later be blamed on the Phoenix Project students.  The watch program was also created to preempt rumors from staff members, about the Phoenix students being out of control, from developing.  It was the student guards in the community watch program which created a safety bubble, ensuring Phoenix students could concentrate on their academics so they could build their math skills necessary for advanced math courses. After the community watch program was instituted, rumors about Phoenix students and incidents villainizing them decreased.

End of November 2018

With continued concern for his students, and to preempt other incidents from arising when he needed to be absent from class for a conference, Mr. Caruso told the administration that teachers, from the math department, were interested in substituting for free, “at no cost to the school.”   This would allow Phoenix students to continue to prepare the students for the upcoming algebra Regents exam.  However, the administration only wanted Mr. X. to be the substitute for the Phoenix Project.  On a day Mr. Caruso went to another school for professional development, his students began to text Mr. Caruso on Remind, a DOE approved app, begging him to return to school.  Mr. Caruso left his PD meeting, reported to the facilitator there was an emergency back at Murrow and needed to return immediately.  Mr. Caruso arrived for his C-Band math class to inform Mr. X. that he no longer needed his substitute services and began to teach algebra to his C-Band math class.    

Phoenix students present Principal Barge with a panoramic picture  of most of the 86 Phoenix students holding up a sign that read, “Thank you Mr. Barge for believing in us!”  The students gave him a card in addition to the picture frame.  The hope was Mr. Barge would see the students’ humanity and thwart the rumors, the hostility toward the students from the Murrow staff and the canceling of the Phoenix Project.  When students gave him the gift and the card, they tried to engage and connect with him through conversation and trying to get him to laugh with their humor.  Despite the students’ success at getting him to laugh and humor him, he continued to express and show a complete lack of concern for Phoenix students.  The false accusations by staff members floating around the building, even though they were lessened, and the agenda to terminate the Phoenix Project by Mr. Barge continued.

November - December 2018

Contractors continued to come into the classroom to take measurements and families were constantly making phone calls to and even emailing Principal Barge to ask him what is going on and why we are being kicked out of the room that was promised to us. He never responded.

December 2018

Mr. Caruso attends a conference and is able to provide Phoenix students with substitute teachers from the math department.  All goes well.

January 2019

After no response from Mr. Barge to any Phoenix parents/guardians phone calls/emails, regarding the status of the Phoenix program, Project Phoenix students went to Principal Barge’s office to make an appointment with his secretary.  Once the meeting began, Principal Barge was very casual, cracking jokes, assuring Phoenix families how Alicia Keys was a good friend of his and not taking the students and their families seriously.  One of the students at the meeting expresses to Mr. Barge that his jokes are unprofessional, rude and disrespectful.  Some feel as if Mr. Barge was rubbing salt on their wounds.  One of the Phoenix Parents asks Mr. Barge, where did he get the money from to build the mock-trial students a courtroom?  Mr. Barge’s response was that a politician donated the money to the school.  When the parent asked, “Which politician?,”  Mr. Barge’s response was “I forgot.”   At the end of the meeting he promised the Phoenix program would stay, and that he would contact the students and families within a couple of months to find a new room, but yet again, they never heard from him.

February 2019

Mr. Caruso hands out a survey to students on team-building activities they would be interested in participating to increase joy and reward them for their dedication and their hard work in increasing their algebra skills.  The students choose to go to Aviator, to go ice-skating and partake in other recreational activities.

March 2019

An administrator calls room 328 during C-Band to deny trip proposal of students from going to Aviator, unless Mr. Caruso can provide nurses for the trip; Mr. Caruso relays information to the students.  From our knowledge of other groups in the school, there have been other trips to Aviator without the need for nurses.

Mr. Caruso plans a trip to Dewey High School, so Phoenix students can connect with MOCA (Men of Color Alliance) and WOCA (Women of Color Alliance) clubs.  These are inclusive clubs, where non-white students and their allies are invited to build friendships and a support system for each other.  

April 2019

Phoenix students go to Dewey High School and make friends with M/WOCA club members.  Topics affecting teenagers are discussed followed by team-building activities and games. Phoenix students are excited to host M/WOCA Dewey students at Murrow HS for next gathering.

May 2019

After 2 years in the Phoenix Project, the data on the students’ success was clear. The passing rate for Phoenix students on the June 2019 Algebra Regents exam was 13% greater than the average of the rest of their 477 peers who took the exam at the end of that semester. When measured against their peers in remedial classes, which is where they would have been had it not been for the Phoenix Program, they had an average passing rate that was 24% higher; Phoenixes’ average passing rate was 82%. The semester ended on a high note following their success and the students were looking forward to an expanded program in the Fall 2019.  

June 2019

After 2 years in the Phoenix Project, the data on the students’ success was clear. Their June 2019 Algebra Regents exam, increased the math department’s overall passing rate by 11% and one Phoenix Student scored the highest in the whole department out of 559 students. The semester ended on a high note following their success and the students were looking forward to an expanded program in the Fall of 2019.

September 2019,

Upon return for the fall semester the students arrived only to find their Phoenix Community room was empty and trashed; their community had been destroyed. The approved furniture was gone along with the bookshelves, lamps, tables etc. Along with the empty room there was no program, the students would not be adopting freshmen and there would be no Phoenix Program. The students and parents were again heartbroken.  They battled feelings of hopelessness, outrage, powerlessness and trauma.  Some students began to cope in maladaptive ways with their pain and lost interest in school.  One student saying, “Roberto what the f*** is the point of even trying in this world, if we’re always gong to be shitted on.”

September-November 2019

Parents alerted Mr. Caruso that they would be reaching out to the media with their grievances since they have felt ignored and dismissed by the school administration. Mr. Caruso subsequently alerted Principal Barge, to which he stated to Mr. Caruso to inform families that the Phoenix Program would return in September 2020.  Mr. Barge never contacted the families to express his concerns over their pain and outrage.

Phoenix students find the study lounge furniture donated to the Phoenix Project and the furniture they were entitled to in room 156.  This is a room on the first floor, near emergency exit doors, where mental health professionals/social workers and counselors are located.  Room 328, the Phoenix community room, once centrally located, was now reduced to a room for mental health purposes in a secluded part of the school.  There were no classes programmed in room 328 for both semesters of the 2019-2020 school year.  Now Phoenix students could not use their old community room and were being prevented from even using the furniture donated to them now found in room 156, “the new Phoenix room,” unless they wanted to seek mental health services.

February 2020

Phoenix families email Executive Superintendent Freeman and Superintendent Prayor, three notices with the subject line “Edward R. Murrow Phoenix Families Need Your Help.”  Phoenix families even called Mr. Prayor’s office on several occasions, at various times throughout the days, and left messages with his secretary.  Phone numbers were left, with families telling his secretary to mark their messages as URGENT.  They explained that students and families were experiencing a hostile environment at Murrow HS.  Neither emails nor phone calls were ever returned by anyone in the superintendent offices.

March 2020

Weeks before the lockdown and pandemic began, recruitment for Phoenix Project teachers began by Phoenix students, with hopes of expanding the program to different departments throughout the school. A few Phoenix students overheard other teachers discussing their concern about being “Phoenix Teachers” or having any connection to the Phoenix Program, for fear of retaliation by the administration. This confirmed the students’ suspicions that they were in fact being unfairly targeted by staff and that their experiences, while during the project, were not mere coincidences. This was the moment their worst fears were confirmed.  The problem with the Phoenix Program was much bigger than the students and parents initially suspected. They have been targeted!

February 9, 2021

An Equity Team Zoom meeting took place with Principal Barge as the facilitator, along with other Murrow staff, non-Phoenix and Phoenix students and families present.  The Phoenix families expressed a detailed history of their experiences at Murrow.  They expressed the pain, abandonment and betrayal by Mr. Barge.  They also expressed how other Murrow staff members created a hostile environment at Murrow for them.  And once again, Mr. Barge openly dismissed their concerns, despite efforts by non-Phoenix constituents at the meeting advising him to address Phoenix families’ inquiries and concerns.

February 10, 2021

The Phoenix students and parents attended the Community Education Council Town Hall for district 21.  They told Chancellor Caranza about the harassment and racial inequity they have faced at Murrow HS.  The Phoenix students demand an external investigation be conducted.  Chancellor Caranza alerted Executive Superintendent Freeman, present at the Town Hall, who then stated she would alert Superintendent Prayor of the matter.  Approximately two weeks after that town hall, Chancellor Caranza announces his resignation, blaming it on COVID-19.

February 26, 2021

Principal Barge sends an email to Phoenix Family stating he wants to hold a meeting on March 4, 2021 at 2pm.  Phoenix family responds to Mr. Barge on March 3, 2021 that 2pm is not a feasible time on such short notice for parents/guardians to take time off from work and that an evening time will work better.

Beginning of March 2021

Phoenix families expressed to Mr. Caruso they wanted to speak to the superintendents, because they were never contacted by either of them as Chancellor Caranza had promised.  Mr. Caruso reached out to Executive Superintendent Freeman and Superintendent Prayor and he was able to get us an appointment to speak with them to express our grievances. 

March 17, 2021

Phoenix students and families met with superintendents Freeman and Prayor to share their stories and the trauma they endured at Murrow.  They demanded an external investigation be conducted, that Mr. Barge and all others involved to be held accountable, be given an apology by Mr. Barge to the Phoenix families and to have the Phoenix Program reinstated, as well as other things detailed in their petition. Both superintendents assign Mr. Caruso as the liaison between Phoenix families and the DOE constituents.

April 11, 2021

Phoenix Students and parents asked Mr. Caruso to get in touch with the superintendents to provide families with an update. The Phoenix families received a response from the superintendents that the Phoenix Program would be reinstated at Murrow and in other schools throughout New York City.  There was still no accountability or explanation for the abrupt closure of the Phoenix Program to anyone.  The students were still traumatized by Murrow’s staffs’ hostile actions toward them, including the false accusations made against them during the duration of the program.  Students expressed confusion as to why no one cared about their plight.  They expressed exhaustion with the rollercoaster of emotions from the high hopes of their stories being heard to the falls of realizing no one seemed to care or value their experiences.  This caused some students to battle waves of depression.  They also began battling intense waves of fear of telling their story about a school as reputable as Murrow; fear from both not being believed and fear of retaliation from people who don’t want to support their cause to empower struggling students. 

April 28, 2021

A Phoenix family member contacts and speaks with Detective Nuzzi at the 70th precinct to obtain a permit for a protest at Murrow High School: May 24, 2021 at 1PM.

April 29, 2021

Early morning, Principal Barge sent an email to the Phoenix families stating that there was “a lack of communication” about expanding the Phoenix Program.  He states he is hiring a mediator to address the Phoenix families’ concerns. 

Mid-morning, Phoenix families send email to Executive Superintendent Freeman and Superintendent Prayor expressing their dismay that no one at Murrow is being held accountable for the actions against their children and still were not given any apology by Mr. Barge.  

Late that evening, Superintendent Prayor emails some of the Phoenix families to have a discussion about “our disappointment” and gives us his cell number.

April 30, 2021

Phoenix families make phone calls and speak to NPR call screeners with hopes to speak with Mayor De Blasio on Brian Lehrer show.  A few parents make contact with the screeners and ask that their children’s experiences at Murrow be made public.  “Our children  have been experiencing harassment and discrimination at Murrow, please take their calls.”  A Phoenix student makes contact with an NPR screener, informing the screener of the hostile situation at Murrow HS.  The screener tells the student at 11:46am, not to report the name of the school when on air with the mayor.  NPR continues to take calls on expanding the compost program and loud motorcycles on the Upper East Side.  Brian Lehrer is tweeted by Phoenix students and ignored, as he reads off other tweets he received.  At 12:00pm, NPR terminates the call.  A phoenix family member leaves their personal cell number and also a detailed message of the situation at Murrow.  No calls are ever returned to any Phoenix students.

May 11, 2021

The Phoenix family begins their social media campaign exposing Murrow.  They post their website, including a timeline on incidents associated with the Phoenix Project. Each day that follows they release more information on actions the public and elected officials can take to place pressure on DOE for an external investigation to begin at Murrow.

May 12, 2021

Mid-morning, Phoenix families get an email from Principal Barge’s secretary to join the next Equity Team meeting on May 18, 2021 with talks on developing a student advisory board for September 2021, a presentation from Murrow’s Restorative Justice team and departments on curriculum development. 

Late afternoon, Principal Barge emailed Mr. Caruso about his hiring of a mediator from the New York Peace Institute and inquired if members of the Phoenix family are willing to share their information with the mediator;  Mr. Caruso forwards Mr. Barge’s email to families morning of May 14, 2021.

May 14, 2021

Superintendent Prayor contacts Phoenix family to address their concerns and again leaves his cell number.