Protesters outside charter school call for Dan Loeb's resignation
Originally published in
New York Daily News
Protesters stormed Success Academy Harlem 1 charter school on Friday demanding that charter school chairman Daniel Loeb be fired for making racist comments about a black lawmaker.
About two dozen progressives and activists gathered outside the W. 118th Street school – where class was still in session – bearing signs and chanting slogans calling for Loeb's ouster.
The politically-connected hedge fund manager came under fire for his Aug. 10 Facebook post saying that Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, of Yonkers, has done "more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood."
Loeb's statement, which seemingly referenced the Ku Klux Klan, prompted critics such as Mayor de Blasio and National Action Network founder Rev. Al Sharpton to call to for his dismissal.
The billionaire founder of the Third Point hedge fund has since deleted the post and apologized, but protesters at Success Academy Harlem 1 said that's not good enough.
"We are demanding nothing less than his full, and immediate resignation," said National Action Network Northeast Regional Director Kirsten Foy.
"Anyone who would sanitize his behavior with a milquetoast apology and a recitation of a tired record is also part of the problem," Foy added.
Loeb helps fund Success Academy and a number of pro-charter groups and has been a generous donor to politicians, including Gov. Cuomo.
Success Academy is the city's largest and fastest growing charter school operator, with 46 schools that enroll 15,500 students.
Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz sent a letter to families and staffers on Tuesday apologizing for Loeb's remarks, but said he will remain in his position.
A Success Academy spokeswoman declined to comment on the Harlem 1 school protest. A Loeb spokeswoman didn't respond to a request for reaction on the demonstration.
State Sen. Brian Benjamin, who joined the anti-Loeb protestors, said Moskowitz must do more to atone for Loeb's racist remarks.
"The response has been woefully inadequate and it is disrespectful to my community," said Benjamin, a Manhattan Democrat.
"What Dan Loeb did was absurd, but I believe it's worse, the response we've heard from him and Eva Moskowitz."
