The New York City Board of Education’s exoneration of Miss May Quinn, who was charged with spreading anti-Semitic, anti-Negro and anti-alien propaganda in the city schools, has been attacked in a statement by Ralph E. Samuel, chairman of the New York Chapter of the American Jewish Committee, who warned that the “trifling penalty imposed on Miss Quinn for dereliction of duty” may be interpreted “by bias-minded teachers as an encouragement to “bring anti-democratic theories” into classrooms.
Mr. Samuel called upon New Yorkers not to permit the Quinn case to be “forgotten” and declared that the American Jewish Committee will press further action against the Board’s decision by “supporting the campaign of the United Parents’ Association.” Meanwhile, parents at the new school to which Miss Quinn was transferred have protested to supervisory educational officers and have picketed the school demanding Miss Quinn’s dismissal. Some parents have announced that they will not permit their children to sit in Miss Quinn’s classes.
A project to study group and race prejudices in children has been instituted by the American Jewish Committee and is being carried out at the Institute of Child Welfare of the University of California, Dr. John Slawson, executive vice president of the committee announced today. The various influences affecting the spread of prejudice and the age at which it begins to manifest itself are the primary aims of the study, which is being carried on among 160 children all of whom are approximately 17 years old and have been under observation by California University educators since birth.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
