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NEW YORK, NY April 13, 2005 —Haitian parents and community members are demanding that Chancellor Joel Klein fire the principal and assistant principal of an elementary school in Queens Village, over allegations of racist behavior.

The parents claim their children were humiliated by one of the administrators and that the other tried to cover it up. WNYC’s Beth Fertig has more.

Nine year-old Esther Monnuis doesn’t have a lot of words for what she was feeling one day last month, during lunch time. She just knows she was sad.

ESTHER: I don’t know any words that stands for sad but I know I was sad and other people were sad too, we were separated and sitting on the floor without no spoons and we had to eat with our hands.

Esther says her fourth grade Haitian bilingual class at PS 34 was ordered to sit on the floor by Assistant Principal Nancy Miller after a couple of kids got into a fight. She recalls the words Miller used when she ordered the kids to eat rice and chicken with their hands.

ESTHER: She called us animals. That’s the only word she said. Haitians are animals.

But while Esther says she was sad, her mother – Federline Mercy - was angry.

FEDERLINE: I want the lady fired!

DEMONSTRATOR: Miller must go! Miller must go!

About forty Haitian-Americans held a protest yesterday outside the elementary school in Queens Village. They demanded that Chancellor Klein fire Miller and the principal, Pauline Shakespeare, for allegedly trying to cover up the incident.

Elsie Saint Louis Accilion of Haitians United for Progress says she’s seen letters the kids were encouraged to write by their concerned teacher.

She also says a few students claim the principal tried to get them to change their stories, and even tried to bribe them with ice cream. She’s disappointed nothing has happened since the lunchtime incident occurred nearly a month ago.

ACCILION: No one has responded, the principal is still in the school, the parents are afraid to talk, they’re afraid what’s going to happen to the children. It’s unacceptable.

The chancellor’s office says the incident was referred last month to the Education Department’s office of Special Investigations. Yesterday, a top advisor to the chancellor met with parents at the school to address their concerns. Jean Desravines said he sympathized.

DESRAVINES: As someone of Haitian descent it’s something that’s disturbing, if true. However, we can’t make decisions based on allegations and that’s why the chancellor felt it was important to refer to the office of special investigations.

The Department of Education issued a written statement promising the investigation will be conducted quickly and thoroughly. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.