Knicks Ticker-Tape Parade is on a School Day 鈥� and Conflicts with Regents Exams. Some Families Are Angry.
One mom has already started a petition asking city and state officials, as well as the team鈥檚 owner, to move the day of the parade.
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The New York Knicks鈥� victory this weekend over the San Antonio Spurs, cementing their , brought joy to fans across the five boroughs.
Shortly after their win, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the city will host to honor the team. It will start at 10 a.m. at Battery Park and travel north along Broadway through the Canyon of Heroes before concluding at City Hall for a ceremony where the mayor will give the team the keys to the city.
The only problem: Some parents are mad that the parade is being held on the same day as . The biology and living environment exams are being administered in the morning. The 鈥淓arth and Space Sciences鈥� and 鈥淧hysical Setting/ Earth Science鈥� exams are being administered in the afternoon.
One mom has already started asking city and state officials, as well as the team鈥檚 owner, to move the day of the parade. (High school students who aren鈥檛 taking Regents exams that day don鈥檛 attend school.) And one student started to cancel school altogether on Thursday.
鈥淭his scheduling conflict creates a profound issue of equity and fairness,鈥� Michelle Weintraub, a mom of an eighth grader scheduled to take a Regents exam that day, wrote in her petition. 鈥淭he students most affected are those who have worked tirelessly all year to pass these exams. Depriving them of the chance to celebrate their city鈥檚 historic milestone 鈥� while adults and non-testing students freely attend 鈥� is inherently inequitable.鈥�
, the student who started a petition, played up the feelings of unity the Knicks have brought to the city 鈥� and suggested the parade could be a teachable moment.
鈥淭he parade is an educational experience in itself, rich with lessons about sportsmanship, history, and the power of dreams coming true,鈥� Cosa wrote in his petition. 鈥淏y supporting this request, we will allow the next generation of Knicks fans to experience this extraordinary moment, creating lifelong memories and sparking inspiration for future accomplishments in their own lives.鈥�
As mayor, Mamdani has embraced a sense of fun for the city鈥檚 school kids, so they could watch the Knicks in the championship games. And of course, many kids were grateful to him for bringing back traditional snow days. But to do that, he had to get a for the day off since students already were at .
Getting a waiver again would likely be a tall order.
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