TEACHABLE MOMENT

Long Island School Head Resigns After Forcing Black Student to Kneel in Apology to White Teacher

John Holian told an 11-year-old student to apologize “the African way,” though the student was not African.

A Long Island headmaster has resigned after commanding an 11-year-old Black student to kneel during an apology to a white teacher. John Holian, the head of St. Martin de Porres Marianist School, was placed on leave earlier this week after he forced the student to his knees to deliver an apology to his teacher, who is white. Trish Paul, the student’s mother, told CBS, “[Holian] stated that he should apologize the African or the Nigerian way, which was to kneel down. He’s hurt, humiliated, sad disappointed. He’s just going through a lot of the emotions now.” She added that Holian tried to explain himself by way of a previous interaction with a Nigerian family. “There was an African father who came in and told their child to apologize the Nigerian or African way. That’s when it dawned upon me that maybe he generalized my child because he was Black,” she said. Paul is Haitian-American.