Three national Jewish organizations yesterday called on the Board of Education to order the dismissal of Luis Fuentes, superintendent of Manhattan’s School District 1, as “an anti-Semitic bigot” who has “demonstrated his unfitness for the position he now holds.”
The action came in a 14-page appeal filed by the American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and Jewish Labor Committee calling on the Board to reverse a finding by a special hearing officer that Fuentes was “at the present time, neither a bigot nor a racist.” Charges of anti-Semitism against Fuentes, brought by the Jewish groups, were heard by Vincent Broderick, a former Police Commissioner who now practices law in New York, from Nov. through Jan.
Broderick’s report to School Chancellor Harvey B. Scribner returned the case to the local school board for its own action. Scribner approved the report in making it public on April 5. In his finding, Broderick suggested that the local board “instruct Mr. Fuentes to refrain, in the future, from comments, public or private, of a slurring nature toward, or about, any racial, ethnic or religious groups.”
The Jewish groups appeal, in the form of a letter to Board Chairman Joseph B. Monserrat, stated that … “The hearing officer’s finding that Fuentes ‘is at the present time neither a bigot nor a racist’ was contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence.” The appeal also asserted that the Chancellor and the Board of Education have the power to order Fuentes’ dismissal.
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