By Charles Lane | September 19, 2025
City leaders are calling for an investigation into the FDNY’s training curriculum and practices after a video surfaced recently showing students of color carrying cotton balls with their hands tied behind their backs.
“Forcing Black and brown students to carry cotton balls with their hands tied behind their backs is not only demeaning, it is blatant racism, plain and simple,” said Councilmember Rita Joseph, who chairs the Committee on Education.
The incident occurred in an FDNY training classroom in Queens during a summer youth program and was first reported by PIX11.
The incident comes after the city recently settled a $30 million class-action lawsuit over alleged racial and gender bias in the FDNY.
“This video is shameful and an unacceptable way for our youth to be educated in supposed ‘problem solving,’” said Oren Barzilay, head of the union for EMS workers. “The FDNY has an ongoing history of racial bias with our EMS members and it is disappointing that young children have to be exposed to it as education exercises.”