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New Rochelle Board of Education Honors Racist Xenophobe on Wall of Heroes

Peter Parente has called for the “extermination” of Hispanics, Muslims and Immigrants.

Robert Cox

17 Nov 2023 — 5 min read

Ward School Wall of Honor

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (November 17, 2023) — Peter Parente, as documented in his words, is a virulently and violently racist anti-Hispanic, anti-Immigrant, anti-Muslim, xenophobe. Despite this, he has repeatedly been honored as a “hero” by the New Rochelle Board of Education.

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In 2022, Parente made a presentation to youngsters in grades two through five as part of a Memorial Day event at William B. Ward Elementary School. In 2023, Parente was included in a Wall of Honor as part of marking Veterans Day at Ward. Parente’s daughter attends the school.

Both times, Parente was featured in the official school district newsletter.

In 2022, Parente was quoted in the newsletter:

"What a wonderful reception here at Ward Elementary School! The students as well as the staff were so welcoming. The children were fascinated by our stories and enthusiastically attentive. It was so heartwarming and what a connection we made. Looking forward to returning soon and hope to make this a regular event for all grades!”

With no small irony, Annabel Sanchez, a fifth-grader in Ann Briscoe’s class, is quoted praising Parente.

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While I suppose District leadership might overlook Parente’s criminal history, which includes arrests for drug possession, weapons violations and domestic violence, or his disciplinary history while in the Marines (drugs, again), it is difficult to understand how they have tolerated his unconscionable, violent hate speech directed specifically against New Rochelle school students and their families: Hispanics, Muslims, Immigrants, Democrats.

I reached out to Ward Principal Franco Miele, the Ward PTA and district leadership to express my concerns about honoring a person whose conduct was so despicable he was removed from the City of New Rochelle Veterans Advisory Council by his own family member (former Council Member Louis Trangucci) after which the City refused to fund veterans events associated with him.

It is my hope that Principal Miele will reconsider by undertaking his own due diligence, removing Parente from the Ward Wall of Honor and precluding him from addressing students or otherwise making future appearances at the school beyond what any parent is entitled to do.

In 2019, Peter Parente unleashed a tirade on Facebook where he blamed immigrants “invading our homeland” for overcrowded schools. Parente’s post and subsequent comments contains a sprawling array of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and white-supremacist references with calls for violence and an armed response to immigrants arriving in New Rochelle and enrolling in New Rochelle schools

“They need to not only be stopped, they need to be removed and or de fucking ported,” wrote Parente.

Parente did not elaborate on how “they” should be “stopped” but made repeated references to guns.

In a later comment, Parente said, “the fucking cock a roaches need to be exterminated”.

“More illegals and refugees running around New Rochelle than we can count,” said Parente. “Our kids can’t even get into the schools because we need to have a lottery system that is rigged!! Home owners children should come first!! These schools are overloaded with privileged immigrants and refugees.”

In response to a commenter’s suggestion to “assemble at the boarder armed” and “take care of business”, Parente proposed doing so at the borders of New Rochelle.

Parente took issue with people who do not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, immigrants who he says overcrowd the health care system and Democrats running for President at the time. The rhetoric mirrors a manifesto written by a mass shooter:

The examples I provide demonstrate people posting these comments on Parente’s Facebook page are drawing rhetorical water from the same rhetorical well as the Christchurch shooter; intertwining the rhetoric of “invaders” and “immigrants” and “refugees” and “Muslims” to create a sense of “other”, to de-humanize human beings, then to mix that with talk of “revolution” and “guns” and threats of violence topped off with a dose of white-supremacist idealization of Donald Trump mixed in with white-supremacist references and far-right talking points; having thus de-humanized these people as an “enemy” that is attacking America and the American way of life, taking up arms to kill them is no longer murder but justified self-defense or as Parente says, all the rationale needed to exterminate the cockroaches.

The same theory was cited by other mass shooters including the Rochester shooter.

As a result of his tirade, he was removed from the New Rochelle Veterans Advisory Committee.

Further documentation here: