'Somebody gotta go down.'
The city Department of Education wants to fire a teacher for violating the privacy of a student who waved a loaded gun on Instagram with those frightening words.
A veteran Queens teacher who sounded the alarm about a 17-year-old student waving a gun on Instagram with the threatening words “Somebody gotta go down”could lose his job over charges that he violated the teen’s privacy.
The city Department of Education is seeking to terminate Adam Bergstein, an English teacher at Forest Hills HS, who feared the student posed a danger to students and staff after the teen’s arrest and release.
The case raises questions about safety amid the ongoing nightmare of school shootings, whether teachers have the right to demand protection from potentially dangerous students, and whether officials can punish those who speak up.
A video posted on Jan. 7, 2025 showed the student brandishing a firearm, gyrating in low-hanging pants, and chanting words from a rap song, “Bow, bow. Somebody gotta go down.”
Classmates notified the school. The NYPD’s 112th Precinct boasted on Facebook about the arrest of “an individual” found with an illegal firearm, ammunition and an imitation gun.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office identified Moshe Khaimov as the “adolescent offender,” a term for youths aged 16 or 17 accused of a violent felony. Their names and cases are made public. The New York Post ran an article on the case.
“What is the administration’s plan, should Moshe return to Forest Hills high school, prior to the school year concluding?” Bergstein asked Principal Paul Wilbur in a Jan. 13, 2025 email.
“He has threatened staff, he has struck staff, he has spit on staff, he has threatened students, he has struck students and he has brought weapons to school. He now has access to acquire handguns. He is a clear and present danger,” the teacher wrote.
Bergstein also sent the email to nine others, including Queens South high school superintendent Josephine Van-Ess and DOE security director Mark Rampersant. This reporter obtained a copy.
On Jan. 17, Wilbur replied: “Admin has been working with the NYPD and NYCPS Central since we became aware of the social media post. We are currently working to ensure that our disciplinary response is in line with the gravity of the situation.”
Bergstein never received a specific safety plan.
On Jan. 31, Bergstein sent another email to Wilbur and the others after learning that a DOE hearing officer had lifted the youth’s suspension “due to his IEP,” or Independent Educational Program, a plan for students with disabilities.
“The reality is, he can be back in the building on Monday,” Bergstein wrote. “I am asking the same question that I presented 17 days ago. Is there a plan by the administration and the officials from the DOE to deal with Moshe, if and/or, when he comes back to Forest Hills high school?
“To reiterate the overarching concern, there are 3,700 humans in this building at risk of being injured, harmed or killed through inaction.”
The principal then filed a complaint with the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, saying Bergstain sent an email with a 17-year-old’s first name, mentioned that the student had an IEP, and discussed confidential disciplinary results to “non-DOE and unauthorized individuals.”
Last July 30, SCI Anastasia Coleman notified then-Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos that she found Bergstein violated DOE policy and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a 1974 federal law protecting the confidentiality of student records. She recommended “appropriate disciplinary actions against Bergstein, up to and including termination.”
The DOE pulled Bergstein out of the school on Dec. 23. He now sits idle in a disciplinary “rubber room,” still collecting his $145,146 salary. The city also pays about $21,000 a month to other teachers covering his four classes, and another teacher filling in for his dean duties.
Bergstein, now in his 25th year as a teacher in the DOE, is a Forest Hills HS chapter leader for his union, the United Federation of Teachers. While fighting the disciplinary charges, he declined to comment.
The UFT spokeswoman would not discuss the DOE case against Bergstein, but defended his intentions:
“Adam Bergstein, like all UFT Chapter Leaders, is dedicated to the safety of the students and staff in his building,” she said in a statement. “Learning and social-emotional growth are only possible in a safe and supportive school environment.”
The Queens DA office said it referred the case against Moshe Khaimov to Family Court, where prosecutors in the city Law Department handled it.
After a trial, the court found Khaimov guilty of the top charge and lesser charges, officials said, and declared him a juvenile delinquent – the legal term for a child over 12 years old, but under 18, who commits an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult.
The court then decides if the juvenile needs supervision, treatment, or detention under the state Office of Children and Family Services.
The dispositions are kept confidential.
IDEA has guardrails in place when students with disabilities engage in serious misconduct. It protects access to services and ensures due process. What it does not do is excuse dangerous behavior or require silence in the face of a public threat.
It would be unbelievable if it weren't DOE. DOE seems to have a policy manual created to always do the wrong and least moral thing in serious situations.