Editing Washington Heights, Manhattan (section)

====School conflicts====
[[File:George Washington Educational Campus from north.jpg|thumb|[[George Washington Educational Campus]]]]
During the 1970s, Washington Heights' School District 6 (including Inwood and Hamilton Heights) was the scene of numerous conflicts over [[de facto]] [[racial segregation]] and unequal resource distribution within the district's schools.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|156}} The School Decentralization Act, passed by the [[New York State Legislature]] in 1969, set up elected boards for New York City's school districts with limited hiring power and control over [[Title I]] funds.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144227931.pdf|access-date=April 24, 2021|first=Kenneth R.|last=McGrail|volume=5|issue=2|title=New York City School Decentralization: The Respective Powers of the City Board of Education and the Community School Boards|year=1977|journal=[[Fordham Urban Law Journal]]}}</ref>{{Rp|271}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/11/archives/a-history-of-decentralization.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=December 11, 1971|title=A History of Decentralization}}</ref> At the time, District 6's demographics were rapidly changing due to white students' withdrawal from the public school system and the broader trend of white flight, while the black and Latino student population rapidly increased.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|157}}

This resulted in a stark gap between the district's few racially integrated schools, which enjoyed better academic reputations and access to resources, and the remainder of schools with very few white students and serious overcrowding problems.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|162}}<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|94}} Fierce competition between different factions for educational funding and new schools was compounded by the disproportionate representation of the majority-white northwestern Heights on the board, creating an environment in which public meetings were plagued by incivility and at times even violence.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|153}}

George Washington High School, located on 193rd Street and Audubon Avenue near [[Highbridge Park]], faced numerous issues representative of the changes and conflicts of the neighborhood's public schools, which intersected in 1970 to produce a situation of extreme chaos.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|99}} Located in a grand building with a [[Works Progress Administration]] mural by [[Lucienne Bloch]],<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1991/11/18/music-and-art|first=Mindy|last=Aloff|date=November 10, 1991|title=Music and Art|access-date=April 1, 2021|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref> the school was relatively prestigious in the decades after its 1925 founding, graduating people such as [[Alan Greenspan]], [[Henry Kissinger]], and [[Murray Jarvik]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World|last=Greenspan|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Greenspan|publisher=Penguin Press|year=2007|isbn=978-1-59420-131-8|oclc=122973403|title-link=The Age of Turbulence}}</ref>{{Rp|24}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Isaacson|first=Walter|author-link=Walter Isaacson|title=Kissinger: A Biography|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|date=1992|isbn=978-0-671-66323-0|url=https://archive.org/details/kissinger00walt}}</ref>{{Rp|37}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/health/13jarvik.html|first=Bruce|last=Weber|date=May 13, 2008|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Murray Jarvik, 84, Whose Research Helped Lead to Nicotine Patch, Dies}}</ref> Although George Washington remained racially mixed through the early 1970s, the school had a tracking system that saw white students leave the school better prepared for college, and violence frequently broke out among gangs identifying by race.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|100}}

Discontent with academics and school policy led to a wave of student demonstrations, supported by a group of parents who pushed to set up an information table in the school's lobby in order to answer questions and hear complaints regarding the school.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|102}} However, the [[United Federation of Teachers]] – which had also clashed with students and parents over the [[New York City school boycott|1964 school boycott]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/02/04/archives/boycott-cripples-city-schools-absences-360000-above-normal-negroes.html|date=February 4, 1964|access-date=April 1, 2021|title=Boycott Cripples City Schools; Absences 360,000 Above Normal; Negroes and Puerto Ricans Unite; School Boycott Keeps Hundreds of Thousands of City Pupils Away; Picketing is Calm in Racial Protest; 2,600 Marchers Show Up at Buildings – Donovan Is Critical of Leaders|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and the [[New York City teachers' strike of 1968|1968 teachers' strike]]<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|156}} – perceived this as an attempt to subvert teachers' authority, leading them to start a local strike after the administration reached a compromise with parents over the table.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/07/archives/head-of-george-washington-high-school-resigns.html|first=Martin|last=Arnold|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=March 7, 1970|title=Head of George Washington High School Resigns}}</ref>

By the end of 1970, the high school had seen the resignation of three principals and multiple incidents of violence against students, teachers, and security guards;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/03/archives/washington-high-gets-fourth-principal-this-year.html|first=C. Gerald|last=Frase|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=December 3, 1970|title=Washington High Gets Fourth Principal This Year}}</ref> while many safety improvements were made throughout the 1970s, its academic performance continued to decline.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|109}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/01/archives/washington-high-from-riot-to-hope-washington-high-from-riot-to-hope.html|first=William K.|last=Stevens|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=June 1, 1971|title=Washington High: From riot to Hope}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/19/nyregion/albany-issues-list-of-schools-in-trouble.html|first=Sam Howe|last=Verhovek|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=December 19, 1989|title=Albany Issues List of Schools In Trouble}}</ref> In 1999, the school took its present form as the [[George Washington Educational Campus]] composed of four smaller schools.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/nyregion/coach-steve-mandls-suspension-erased-by-city-school-officials.html|first=Eric P.|last=Newcomer|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=June 25, 2012|title=Education Dept. Retracts School Coach's Suspension}}</ref>