Harris was there to acknowledge the need for more Black male teachers.
"The numbers don't lie that show that a young Black male that has an African-American teacher is 40% less likely to drop out come high school," he said.
At Bethune, 43% of the teachers are Black men, the most in a district where the average is about 4%.
"The key thing that Tobias Harris communicates was that the community looks at him as a hero. They should also be looking at educators as heroes as well," El-Mekki said.
Harris says he knows teachers spend a lot of their own money on supplies, so he gave them each $100 gift cards, as well as Sixers tickets.