Brett Schneider: Shocking video shows Bronx principal who preaches 'love' shoving student outside school
THE BRONX, NEW YORK CITY: In a shocking video, Bronx Collaborative HS principal who had previously preached love, respect, and grace, was spotted shoving a student outside his school located on the DeWitt Clinton Campus. A teenager was pushed by principal Brett Schneider, who raised his fists to continue the brawl outside the Bedford Park school on October 24, 2022, and the incident was caught on a camera and later posted to social media.
The principal was accompanied by a school safety agent but he himself took matters into his control. The school safety agents reported the fight to 911 and later on NYPD confirmed that no arrests were made. Tom Sheppard, a parent representative on the Department of Education’s Panel for Educational Policy, posted the disturbing video on Twitter and according to the New York Post, he stated, “You’re talking about the principal, the leader of the school, a grown man, who is supposed to be trained in de-escalating situations actually out in the street fighting and making it worse.”
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Exhibit 1: Although most of this thread focuses on NYPD, I start here because many students feel @NYCSchools are unsafe. The man in the yellow shirt is a principal physically attacking a student outside a school in the Bronx. Taken in Oct. 22, but no action taken. Thread 🧵 3/9 pic.twitter.com/Sf9qz5N2mw
— Tom Sheppard (@tomcsheppard) January 7, 2023
Who is Brett Schneider?
Brett Schneider, 49, became the founding principal of Bronx Collaborative HS in 2013 after he worked at a progressive DOE school, Manhattan's Institute for Collaborative Education.
“We prize individuality, diversity, and authenticity — working together to address issues of social justice and to create positive change in the world,” says the 'woke' principal's school website. “Teachers work with students on social justice issues through community circles each week and resolve conflicts creatively through restorative circles, conversations, and conferencing,” the website continued.
However, New York Post reports that the students opined that their principal is no knockout. They told the news outlet that the brawl occurred following a fight between a boy and girl a day or two earlier where the fight ended in milk being dumped on the girl. The students claimed that a relative of the girl confronted the boy at the school and hit him.
“And then the principal squared up. He looked like he was a boxer. I was like ‘Wow, this is unbelievable.',” a junior recalled while other students at the school said that the principal seemed to be trying to defend the adult who sucker-punched the teen. Other students said it seemed as if Schneider was trying to defend the adult who hit the teen. One senior said, “That’s a grown man. So, as a grown man, why are you helping another grown man fight a kid?.”
Schneider's 'boxer' attitude and out-of-control behavior contradict his statements online on how to manage his school with about 550 students. “We’ve created a whole different atmosphere – one 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,” according to his quote on Manhattan's Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility in Manhattan website.
“I don’t like him, nobody likes him,” said one freshman, who described how he recently argued with her music teacher about the day’s lesson during class. “He just thinks he’s always right. He never gives anybody else a chance to talk. He has an attitude,” he boasted on the center's website on reducing fights through restorative practices and its effectiveness.
According to the New York Post, a staffer said that the principal “has been caught yelling aggressively at parents and school safety agents if he doesn’t get his way.”
The UFT Solidarity website which is a progressive team of the teacher's union placed Schneider on the list of “administrators in need of improvement.” One former staff member stated, “He repeatedly says he wants to build community but only ever implements his ideas. The joke is that at Bronx Collaborative, there is nothing collaborative about the place.”