NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Federal Appeals Court Upholds $5M Judgment Against Trump, Police Search for Suspect in Bronx Baby Abandonment, NYPD Prepares for New Year’s Eve, and NYC Invests $3M in Latino Studies Curriculum

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

A federal appeals court has upheld a $5 million judgment against President-elect Donald Trump after finding him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll at Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s. Meanwhile, police are searching for the person who abandoned a baby girl in a tote bag Sunday on Reverend James A. Polite Avenue in the Bronx. Plus, Mayor Adams and the NYPD are preparing safety measures for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Finally, the NYC Council is investing $3 million over three years to develop a Latino Studies curriculum for public schools. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with Lymaris Caraballo, an associate professor of English education at Teachers College at Columbia University, who’s helping design the curriculum, and Councilmember Rita Joseph, chair of the City Council’s Education Committee, about what this investment means.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNMIC. I'm Sean Carlson. A federal appeals court has upheld a $5 million judgment against President-elect Donald Trump in New York City. The case stems from a jury's decision last year in Manhattan, where they found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll at Bergdorf-Goodman in the 1990s and for defaming her after she went public with the allegations. Trump argued the trial judge got it wrong and tried to have the judgment thrown. out, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals was not convinced.

Police are searching for the person who abandoned a baby girl in a tote bag on a Bronx Street Sunday morning. According to the NYPD, the child is now stable at Jacoby Medical Center after being found on Reverend James A. Polite Avenue near East 167 Street. The NYPD has released surveillance images of a person in a hooded jacket and face mask they believe is responsible, but they haven't shared further details. Under New York State law, parents can surrender a baby anonymously, but there are strict rules. The baby must be left in someone's care or in a safe location, like a hospital, police station, or a firehouse, and the person dropping the baby off must notify someone there immediately. Mayor Adams and the NYPD say they're

working to make sure the yearly Times Square New Year's Eve celebration on Tuesday is safe. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says there are currently no specific credible threats to the festivities, but city officials remain on alert. The public can expect to see a tremendous amount of police resources deployed throughout the area and across the city. She says that includes the NYPD's specialized units who will be positioned on rooftops, as well as K-9 teams, uniformed, and plane clothes officers, and drones. If you're planning to attend the annual ball drop, be sure not to take any prohibited items. That includes backpacks, large bags, coolers, chairs, umbrellas, and alcohol.

Up next, the New York City Council will invest in Latino Studies in public school curriculums. We'll have more on that after the point. break. The New York City Council is putting $3 million into developing Latino studies curriculum for public schools over the next three years. It's part of a push to make coursework more diverse. A survey in 2019 by the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice found that just 4% of books in grades 3 through 8 were by Latino authors, despite Latino students making up 42% of the city's public school population. I spoke with Limars Carabayo, an associate professor of English education at Teachers College at Columbia University,

who's helping to design the curriculum, and Councilmember Rita Joseph, chair of the City Council's Education Committee, about what this investment means. Councilmember, can you tell us more about the thinking behind the initiative and how you think the new curriculum could change the way students in the city think? It's a historic moment, as you mentioned. The Latin A community of students is made up of 42% of New York City public school students.

So it's important that their stories and the historical context their contributions are also learned in classrooms and also see themselves. Then it would give them a sense of pride, a sense of empowerment, a representation of their culture, history, and a sense of identity, right? If I see myself in the book, I feel like, wow, these were the great people before me, but they look like me. We have a common threat, language, history, food, music, dance, all the things that bring us all together, that representation matter.

Professor Karabalo, in what ways is Latino studies being neglected right now in public schools in New York City? As we heard in those statistics that you named earlier, there is still disproportionate amount of coverage in the curriculum that really privileges white mainstream norms and an underrepresentation of perspective of Latino voices, Latiné voices, the oral histories, for example, of. generations of activists that have been the foundation of many of the cultural and political movements here in the city, examples such as the important contributions of the young lords, whose contributions have led to the founding of Hostos Community College as one example. So there are important cultural and civic movements in the city that are not currently. represented or recognized in the curriculum. And we would like to change that. So, Professor, with the understanding that you're just at the beginning stages of building

the Latino Studies curriculum, can you talk about what you imagine will be the core components of that curriculum? There will be lessons that are aligned to various subject areas across the grade levels so that teachers could recognize the perspectives and the voices of Latino communities throughout various subjects. And what might this look like in math, for example? You know, what are the contributions of Latino mathematicians? What are the ways in which these contributions in math changed the way that we analyze data, the way that we think about different innovations in the city, but also beyond?

Councilmember Joseph, the city recently rolled out social studies resources on Asian studies and black studies. Can you talk a little bit about how the city is rolling out a more culturally diverse curriculum? Well, matter of fact, we just finished wrapping it up in partnership with Columbia University, making sure it's in every school. I just received the hard copy of the curriculum myself, having a chance to look at it, and making sure that it's integrated in all of the subject areas. It will cover from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade.

This is the first time. It's historic. For the first time that we're going to have a black studies curriculum across New York City, For our students, it's been long overdue. We only get to celebrate every February. We want this to be a year-out. Same thing with the Latinese curriculum. We study a Hispanic History Month only once a year, once a month in October.

We want this to be all year-round where students are seeing themselves. They're studying, analyzing texts, writing and reading about people before them and current folks. Councilmember former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a mosaic plan, which would have invested more than $200 million in stimulus money to create a curriculum that would be more reflective of the diverse student body in New York City. But then when Mayor Adams took office, Education Department officials reversed course on Mosaic, instead focusing on overhauling the literacy and math curriculum, which would be supplemented by social studies resources on Asian studies and black studies. What do you think of the new approach?

What I would have love to see, as you mentioned, is to see it across the board, across subject lines. It shouldn't have to be taught in isolation. I don't understand. And I keep saying that. That's one of the sectors that is not stabilized. Whenever a new administration come in, everything gets changed in education. I was hoping that things would stay in place, make probably a couple of more tweaks to it, and keep it in place and just build on what was already there. So we have to start from scratch to build where we are now and hoping that the next person who comes in keeps it as in. Professor Karabalo, in your experience, what is the best way to teach a diverse view of history

to young students? There's less of an issue regarding the mandate and more of an issue of access because if it is easy to implement, if it's aligned with the standards, then it's more organically available and accessible to all students. And so that's why we're starting very much this process from the ground up by doing a lot of community engagement so that as we are developing this work, we're building on what's already there as well as innovating. This last question is for the both of you. And Professor, we can start with you. What more do you think the city can do to make sure that public school students in New York City are taught something that's reflective of their life experiences? The pace of school is very, very fast.

And we have such a high turnover. It's many, many students. It's a very large system. So being able to not just, you know, have access to the curriculum, but also to the professional. development that they need to be able to engage their students effectively is very, very important. Our curriculum is going to explore what does Latinidad really mean, right? It's not just, you know, being Latino does not mean one thing. It means looking across different waves of immigration. It means being across Afro-Latinx communities, indigenous communities. So that's complex. And not all teachers are going to feel comfortable speaking across all of the those areas of difference. So providing continuous professional development is very important in order

to make sure that the curriculum is successful. Councilmember, what about you? What more do you think the city can be doing? Definitely supporting our educators when we roll out this curriculum and also engaging young people to be part of that. And one important person we didn't include in this conversation is parents, having parents be on board as one of our partners in celebrating the Latin A curriculum. As an educator myself, normally when they roll out curriculum, it's a one shot. Come to a PD for two days and that's it. I want ongoing professional development for educators. Also, the curriculum should not be set in stone.

We should constantly be adding on to it and making new additions to it as it comes along and continue to celebrate this amazing, vibrant culture through our young people in the city. That's Associate Professor of English Education at Columbia Le Mars Carabayo and council member Rita Joseph. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Sean Carlson. See you tomorrow.