While the Knicks are on parade, Sebastian Crosa will be working to get the grade.
Rather than lining the streets of lower Manhattan Thursday — whooping for the 2026 NBA Champions, led by Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and his favorite player, Josh Hart — the middle schooler, 12, will be one of the thousands of devastated kids and teachers stuck inside classrooms due to the statewide Regents exams.
The ticker-tape spectacle begins at 10 a.m., with tip-off near Battery Park before moving up Broadway through the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani will present the Knicks with keys to the city.
It’s a sight that Crosa likely won’t be able to see in person.
“It’s upsetting because, obviously, we’ve been waiting for this moment a long time,” Crosa, a Brooklyn public school student, exclusively told The Post. “The parade is really important, and everyone should be able to experience it.”
The seventh grader, with a bleeding heart of blue and orange, launched a Change.org petition this week, imploring Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mamdani and the state Department of Education to “cancel NYC schools on June 18 to allow students, educators, and all proud New Yorkers to participate in the parade and revel in this rare and momentous occasion.”
Crosa, who told The Post he only expected to receive 100 signatures in support of his plight, has garnered over 3,100 endorsements from equally outraged basketball buffs, hoping the powers-that-be have a last-minute change of heart.
But the tween’s formal plea — drafted mere moments after the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs Sunday, reclaiming the title of world champs for the first time since 1973 — comes as a long shot following Mamdani’s announcement that class, as well as the Regents, will undoubtedly be in session during the ticker-tape festivities.
“I know that many New Yorkers have built their entire lives around this team,” Mamdani said Monday. “And for our students … I will still encourage them to be studying hard for their Regents exam.”
The standardized end-of-course tests are given to high schoolers in grades 9 through 12 as a requirement for graduation.
And while Crosa won’t be taking the exam this year, the Knicks fanatic is expected to be in his assigned seat for a full day of learning Thursday — unless, of course, his petition causes a buzzer-beater miracle the likes of Anunoby’s breathtaking Game 4 winning score.
“I know it might be difficult for them to cancel school [or reschedule] the tests at this point, but I figured the petition was worth a shot,” said the tenacious tyke, a self-crowned “leader” among his peers. “The whole city needs this and wants this. So somebody had to do it.”
Colleen, 47, mom to Crosa and younger brother Lucas, 10, says she’s proud her eldest boy is “fighting for what he believes in,” but “disappointed” that he and other students have to fight for their right to party in the first place.
“This generation of kids has gone through a lot of historical events and moments that have been difficult,“ said Colleen, a clinical psychologist. “This is a historical moment of joy, unity and perseverance that they can finally celebrate.
“While I don’t think that these [parade and school scheduling] decisions were made lightly or without thoughtfulness, I am disappointed.”
She and her Knicks-loving family are not alone.
Peeved parents and educators alike are echoing Crosa’s day-off appeal across the internet.
“This message is for Zohran Mamdani,” began one Knicks extremist, an NYC teacher known exclusively online as @Subwayratmom, in her cyber supplication. “Zo…I feel that you, as the mayor, have the power to either cancel school, cancel Regents or move the parade.
“We have to teach until June 26, and that’s a really long time in teacher years,” she continued. “And we’re ready to be outside.”
Sharon, a mother whose daughter will be neck-deep in Regents testing while more than 1.25 tons of confetti fill the Big Apple skies, separately begged, “Due to this win, all the kids and adults would like to be at the parade. Reschedule the Regents, please.”
Molly Vozick-Levinson, 39, a director at a private preschool in Manhattan, isn’t bound by the do’s and don’ts of the DOE, nor are her students — some of whom are still in diapers — being forced to take state exams.
Still, the lifelong Knicks lover tells The Post that it’s “irresponsible” for city and state officials to “tempt” students to skip the Regents by scheduling the parade on a school day.
“Some kids might be tempted to skip their exams, because they think that they might fail anyway,” said Vozick-Levinson. “It’s a huge temptation: ‘If you skip your exams, making the wrong choice for your education, you will get to do something fun.’
“That just seems irresponsible to me,” said the administrator, admitting, however, that she plans to skip out of work early to revel in the fanfare. “I just want to breathe the same air as the New York Knicks. If I get a glimpse of at least one Knick, I’ll be so happy.”
Laverne Mickens, 53, a fourth-grade teacher and Brooklyn native, not only agrees that locals should skip out on their responsibilities, but she’s encouraging it.
“Take state exam or see the Knicks parade — like, are you serious?” said Mickens, whose husband, Cory, will be in attendance while she cares for their disabled sons. “Skip school and call out of work — this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“The last time they won, I’d just been born 53 years ago,” Mickens, a college scholarship specialist, raved. “You don’t know if they’re going to win next year, or if this will ever happen again.
“You better go to that parade.”
