00:00Career up in smoke, FDNY boss resigns after furor over racist cotton ball game at NYC school.
00:08FDNY EMS union president Oren Barzillay says the department has a history of racial and gender bias,
00:14prompting 6,500 FDNY EMS members like Lieutenant Rob Mark to join a 2022 class action lawsuit.
00:22I've become numb to the BS, the racial disparity.
00:29He believes the incident with the high schoolers was ignorant and offensive.
00:32Well, she's definitely no stranger to a second helping. I could see that.
00:36She looks like she could be stuck in a bygone era.
00:40Simpler times is a term they tend to use.
00:42She looks like she calls out bingo numbers.
00:44You could have had those kids bob for apples and kept your job unless you ate all the apples.
00:49A high ranking FDNY official resigned under fire after bizarrely leading a group of mostly black students
00:57at a Brooklyn high school in a cotton ball relay race that some critics call racist.
01:03The post has learned it for you people in the comments that are saying, oh, the kids didn't look upset.
01:07They didn't look like they had any complaints.
01:09Well, that's why they're kids.
01:11It's up to the people that can see things for what they really are and not what they appear to be to call this type of behavior out.
01:18Just because someone doesn't know they're being disrespected doesn't mean that it's OK to continue to disrespect them.
01:24The Goofy Game, historically popular at summer camps.
01:28This is a leadership academy, not a summer camp.
01:31Leadership academy means I'm there to learn something.
01:34Involved teams of players with petroleum jelly smeared on their faces.
01:39Now, Michelle might enjoy a greasy face from licking the frying pan from time to time, but I, for one, am not willing to block my pores up with Vaseline for game.
01:49Picking up cotton balls with their heads, hands tied behind their backs to see who could carry the most balls across the classroom.
01:57It was billed as a team building exercise.
02:00Now, come on, kids.
02:00Let's be honest with each other here.
02:02She looks like she doesn't know the first thing about anything exercise.
02:06The only weight she knows is 25 pound turkey, five pound bags of potatoes and one pound of ground beef.
02:12So I checked out her LinkedIn to see if she had a few years of being a firefighter, EMT, some type of first responder.
02:18I didn't see any of that.
02:19She has all administrative and public speaking skills.
02:23She's an administrator at best.
02:25If this was a program for potential firefighters or EMTs, I wouldn't want to hear anything from old sailboat draws over here.
02:33My opinion.
02:33This is just my opinion.
02:34I want to hear from someone that actually ran into burning buildings, maybe someone that's still around from 9-11, to discuss with me what it actually takes to be a first responder.
02:45I found it offensive and many people who reached out to me.
02:48The students were led by a white instructor, an assistant commissioner at the FDNY, who was recently fired.
02:55A spokesperson for the department saying, once we became aware of the incident, we immediately modified her duty status and launched an investigation.
03:04Black children with their hands tied with cravats behind their back to pick cotton balls with their face.
03:15It's disgraceful.
03:15Maglione, who was white, posted video of the antics on social media, which showed some grinning students were clearly enjoying the game.
03:24And I don't doubt for a second that they were enjoying their self.
03:27But on the outside looking in, it's a bad look.
03:30But FDNY recruiters who saw the video were not laughing.
03:34Now we're talking about the recruiters, the people who are actually tasked with finding the next generation of firefighters and EMTs.
03:41EMTs, that's the canary in the coal mine.
03:44If they don't like it, then you know it's not supposed to ride.
03:46They complained to FDNY brass that they found the exercise offensive, citing the history of slavery and cotton picking.
03:54And what does this have to do with firefighting or anything team building, slathering a bunch of grease on your face and putting cotton on your face?
04:02It reminds me of like a mild form of tar and feathering.
04:05Maglione, who collected nearly $190,000 in city salary last year, was removed from the school and demoted.
04:13She then chose to retire rather than face disciplinary charges, officials say.
04:18You know, for someone that might not like black people, she sure looks like she knows her way around a few of FDNY's pies.
04:24It would have taken her two minutes to run this past someone else.
04:27And that person would have told her immediately that this is a terrible idea.
04:32At 57 years old, she should be well aware that the most blatant reference to black racism other than the hard R are references to picking cotton, i.e. slavery.
04:43An agency insider called the situation a sad end to Maglione's service to FDNY.
04:50Either you die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
04:53There may be laughter coming from this classroom, but officials say what's happening to students in this video is no joke.
04:59Can't use your hands. Can't use your hands.
05:02I didn't like the other children that had their hands tied behind their box.
05:07I found that kind of, you know, kind of discriminating to me.
05:12Luz Haney's twin daughters were in this summer class at the FDNY's Youth Leadership Academy.
05:17One of them seen here doing what the department labeled a team building exercise in August.
05:22But the city's mayor calls it terrible.
05:25One should know the significance of cotton and picking cotton.
05:29It was poor judgment. I agree. It was a very bad look.
05:33An agency source said, I've known Michelle for a long time.
05:36She's a lovely person. She's lovely to you.
05:38She cares about those kids. Maybe she cares about some kids.
05:42It's conditional, unlike her appetite.
05:45However, Cara McCammon, 24, who attended FDNY's EMS Youth Academy at Fort Totten in 2023,
05:53claimed Maglione, who oversaw the six-month program for 17 to 28-year-olds aspiring to be city EMTs,
06:01once told the mostly black and Hispanic students, you don't belong here, and called them idiots.
06:07And this is what I'm talking about.
06:08She doesn't belong in front of these students.
06:11She doesn't know the first thing about first aid or fighting a fire.
06:15I'll give you her LinkedIn page.
06:17She's an administrator at best.
06:19When McCammon criticized Maglione on Instagram for creating a hostile environment,
06:24she was booted from the program a week before final exams.
06:28She told the Post, now, do you think this was an isolated incident?
06:31Do you think she was the only one?
06:33If you do, you need to wake up, because she might not have the expertise to teach anyone a damn thing,
06:39but she has enough pull to kick you out of the program.
06:42The FDNY did not respond to the allegations.
06:45Classic case of a gatekeeper, gatekeeping, trying to discourage these kids with hopes that they'll quit.
06:51This is what we call being tricked out of your spot.
06:53Don't let anyone trick you out of your spot.
06:56Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't do it or you're not good enough to do it.
07:00This game was very degrading.
07:01It was a bad look.
07:03That's the best way that I can describe it.
07:05Tying their hands behind their backs.
07:07The Vaseline, the cotton, which I equate to tar and feathering.
07:11There are so many other games that could have been played.
07:14Why this one?
07:15Absolutely.
07:16Maglione declined to comment at our Diker Heights home this week.
07:19Mayor Eric Adams called the game terrible,
07:22saying one should know the significance of picking cotton and putting it on their face.
07:27I found it offensive, and many people who reached out to me found it offensive.
07:30He told PIX11, which first reported the controversy.
07:34New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles Ramos also ripped the incident.
07:40This kind of behavior is insensitive and in no way aligned with our values covering her ass.
07:45And we are grateful to the FDNY for taking swift action to address it.
07:49She told the station, we will always do everything to ensure our students are respected and supported.
07:55Of course, I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this.
07:58It's no secret that racism still exists in America, unfortunately.
08:03It's alive and well.
08:04But this isn't that type of racism where there's some moron hiding behind a computer,
08:09typing mean things to get a rise out of people.
08:12It hits a little different when there's a face to put to it.
08:15A fat face, but still a face.
08:17It hits a little different when there's a face.
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