School reenacts getting shot by police in dance routine

A US school has reenacted getting shot by police in a play.

New York City fifth graders - equivalent to Year 6 in Britain - at an elementary school held the performance on June 11 as part of a Multicultural Day event.

Students at PS 075 Emily Dickinson School also held signs with messages such as "Respect LGBTQIA+" and "Terrorism has no religion".

Pupils from each grade staged performances for different cultural groups.

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After a performance from fourth graders reciting Native American poetry, the fifth-graders took to the stage.

The 10-and-11-year-old pupils danced to "Glory" by John Legend and Common, with lyrics about Ferguson, Ohio - where a white police officer fatally shot black teen Michael Brown.

The song's lyrics include: "That’s why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up. When it go down we woman and man up.

"They say, 'Stay down', and we stand up."

Choreography from the pupils saw students stare straight up at the ceiling if they had been shot, according to footage shared by the New York Post.

Later, students knelt on one knee, a similar motion to former NFL player Colin Kaepernick who protested during the national anthem before games.

At the end, the students held a variety of placards and American flags.

One of the signs read: "No place for antisemitism."

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An New York Police Department officer said the performance was "beyond inappropriate".

"Having fifth graders pretend to be shot by police is not education; it's political indoctrination and exploitation of children," he said.

"Parents should be demanding answers as to who approved this."

One insider said: "There are specific teachers at PS 075 who are persistently working to inculcate our students."

In 2024, the school performed a Palestinian folk dance known as the Dabke.

New York's socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani has come under scrutiny after suggesting he would scrap the city's gifted and talented programmes.

He has also called for the mayor to have a decreased amount of authority on education calling for a system of "co-governance" with parents, teachers and local councils.

This decision has also been criticised by the likes of Crystal McQueen-Taylor, executive director of the pro-charter group StudentsFirstNY, who told Politico: "In a city as big and complex as New York, the leadership lines have to be really clear.

"If you divide that up amongst dozens of people across the city, you don’t get collaboration. What you actually get is confusion and chaos."

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