Group Defends NJ Principal Accused Of Mocking Little Person

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – A New Jersey school principal stands accused of mocking a little person’s height in a text message to a colleague. The circumstances are murky; innuendo is high. In a show of solidarity, dozens of local parents and community members pack a public meeting about the incident, demand action and blast social media pages with their outrage.

But does the public outcry fit the allegations? Or is it a barometer of a society too quick to leap to conclusions before they have all the facts? Those are the questions that the SOMA Black Parents Workshop wants the community to mull over as they consider the accusations facing Marshall Elementary School Principal Bonita Samuels.

Many of the allegations facing Samuels were summarized in a recent letter from parents to school administrators that demanded action as a result of her alleged December text, as well as a "pattern of bullying" aimed at other school staff, The Village Green reported.

The letter from local parents to the district about the alleged text – which reportedly showed a substitute teacher who is a little person speaking with another educator with the caption "LOL" - stated that Samuels later apologized for the incident. But the letter added that "it is impossible to forget the duress she has continually placed on fellow staff members and the insensitivity she displayed toward this student teacher who is someone's beautiful child."

• See related article: NJ Principal Facing Heat For Alleged Text About Little Person

After the accusations facing Samuels surfaced earlier this month – inciting more than 100 community members to pack a recent district meeting – the SOMA Black Parents Workshop said that that the outcry surrounding the incident “far exceeds the alleged offense.”

The public furor over Samuels also highlights the SOMA school community’s “misplaced priorities,” the group charges.

“We take umbrage at the moral outrage over this alleged incident at the Marshall Elementary School when the community continually makes excuses for the mistreatment of African-American children,” the group said. “If accountability is going to be the new standard in the South Orange-Maplewood School District, we question the equity in the application of this standard against the district’s repeated failures to protect the rights of African-American students. Where is the accountability when the [board of education], teachers, staff and building administrators repeatedly mistreat and fail African-American students? Where is the outrage? The selective outrage of our community is telling and is not overlooked in this moment.”

• See related article: Maplewood and South Orange's Black Students Face Racial Disparities, Report Says
• See related article: N.J. School's 'Slave Auction' Project Inspires Parent Outrage

While SOMA school administrators acknowledged that “a staff member took an insensitive and unprofessional photo of another staff member and texted it to a colleague,” they did not specifically name Samuels in a recent statement about the allegations.

“This incident does not represent the core values of SOMSD,” school administrators said last week. “The investigation has recently been expanded and we do not know all of the facts.”

Read the district’s full statement here.

IN DEFENSE OF SAMUELS

The SOMA Black Parents Workshop issued the following statement on Sunday:

The Black Parents Workshop supports the tenure of Ms. Bonita Samuels and her legal rights to due process and fair treatment in the matter of the alleged mocking of a student-teacher with a disability. We believe the outcry over this incident, after final determination by the Superintendent, far exceeds the alleged offense and once again highlights the misplaced priorities in our school community. Any discipline meted out, if the facts warrant, should be commensurate with administrative procedure and by no means involve the removal of Ms. Samuels as principal of Marshall Elementary School. Ms. Samuels is a highly qualified education professional with teaching, supervisory and administrative leadership experience who has served the South Orange-Maplewood School District capably in several capacities in South Mountain Elementary School and Marshall Elementary School. Her commitment to the education of our children is unquestioned. It is not inconsequential that Ms. Samuels is an African-American principal at of one of the district’s predominantly white elementary schools and that some detractors may have ulterior motives; even those critics who are African-American.

Based on the fact that several teachers have inundated the community with inaccurate facts, it is imperative that the actual facts be presented in some fashion to re-establish Ms. Samuel’s reputation. We want all the facts regarding this alleged incident to come to light in a fair, equitable and legal manner. As a district employee, Ms. Samuels is being vilified and her professional reputation smeared without all of the facts regarding what transpired made clear. She is not a ‘public’ official and is entitled to the legal protections accorded any employee. Comments made in online forums regarding Ms. Samuels appear defamatory and we encourage her to seek legal counsel. Facts matter and thus far innuendo is clouding the discussion regarding the sequence of events at Marshall Elementary School surrounding this alleged incident.

From January 2nd to January 3rd, 2018, Ms. Samuels served a 2-day suspension for an incident involving a student-teacher. Based on an investigation conducted by District Administration and based on the facts submitted to the Superintendent, Ms. Samuels accepted responsibility and accepted the disciplinary action without appealing the decision meted out by the Superintendent.

Based on the laws of the state of New Jersey, public employees are afforded privacy and confidentiality with respect to personnel matters; specifically, when it comes to investigations of conduct and discipline. However, in this case, a cohort of teachers at Marshall Elementary School believe that those laws do not apply to Ms. Samuels and have maliciously and purposely mischaracterized, fabricated and have led the public to believe that Ms. Samuels was the only participant in what occurred on Friday, December 15, 2017. The Black Parents Workshop demands that these teachers come forward and admit their role(s) in the incident and cease and desist from circulating and disseminating false and misleading information about the incident in question and any other unsubstantiated claims. In fact, we believe that the District should conduct an investigation into which teacher(s) have violated the rights of Ms. Samuels by discussing confidential personnel matters in e-mails, text messages, and on Facebook and in [a local] newspaper.

The additional suspension of Ms. Samuels and the second investigation by the District is, in our opinion, the equivalent of double jeopardy. There are no new facts involving the incident with the student-teacher. Ms. Samuels has accepted and served her punishment for her part in the incident that took place on December 15, 2017. This second suspension has been forced on Ms. Samuels based on the specious and dubious stories of Ms. Samuels being a tyrannical administrator. What has not been investigated, however, are the group of teachers who were not investigated for their role in the incident. We demand that the Ms. Samuels’ suspension be lifted immediately and that the District investigate any other actors involved in the incident on December 15, 2017.

We will not sit quietly on the sidelines while the District, in our opinion, violates Ms. Samuels due process rights. Will the District re-open this investigation again because a different set of teachers and parents make unsubstantiated demands? Why wasn’t the first investigation sufficiently and thoroughly conducted so as not to cause a second investigation? What is the experience of the investigators? Are they qualified to perform this task? Is inexperience or incompetence causing this process to continue? It is unconscionable for Ms. Samuels to have to be subjected to the uncertainty of a never-ending investigative process that appears to not be very reliable. The District is treating Ms. Samuels like the FBI treated Hillary Clinton over her email server. The only difference is that Ms. Samuels has accepted responsibility for her part in the incident. We demand that the District provide the qualifications of the investigators in this matter and direct the investigation towards the silent participants.

We also take umbrage at the moral outrage over this alleged incident at the Marshall Elementary School when the community continually makes excuses for the mistreatment of African-American children. If accountability is going to be the new standard in the South Orange-Maplewood School District, we question the equity in the application of this standard against the district’s repeated failures to protect the rights of African-American students. Where is the accountability when the Board, teachers, staff and building administrators repeatedly mistreat and fail African-American students? Where is the outrage? For example, no teacher or administrator was held accountable by this District when:

• Recess is taken away as punishment against students in the Seth Boyden elementary school.
• African-American students at Columbia High School are denied access to advanced-level courses by the Guidance Department.
• Students in a ‘college prep’ course in Columbia High School are given an assignment that is more appropriate for an elementary school student.
• African-American students at Columbia High School report feeling harassed and bullied by building security.
• African-American students are disproportionately punished, as compared to their white peers, and the Board of Education fails to publicly disclose disciplinary data.
• An African-American student at Columbia High School is wrongly accused by a teacher of being under the influence of narcotics and is questioned and searched without his parents’ knowledge.
• Students are repeatedly denied access to the Columbia High School library.
• Columbia High School teachers exhibit racism in reaction to a student dance performance.
• The Board of Education is silent when it is informed that students were the victims of police brutality in their own community.
• African-American male students are sexually assaulted by a white, female Columbia High School teacher supposedly undetected by the building administrator but known to students.
• Columbia High School teachers who have exhibited a pattern of racial bias are allowed to continue teaching in the district.
• The district fails for two-decades to fully implement the state-mandated Amistad African-American history curriculum.
• The district fails to hire African-American teachers continues to offer excuses to justify the racial disparity in faculty.

The selective outrage of our community is telling and is not overlooked in this moment. We are monitoring this process and support Ms. Samuels continued tenure as principal of the Marshall Elementary School. If it is determined, through the proper process, that she and others erred in judgment, whatever discipline is considered should fit and not exceed the offense. Any attempt to remove her as principal calls into question the district’s intent and will compel us to expand our forthcoming legal inquiry into the district’s practices to include its record of hiring, and the promotion and retention of African-American professionals.

We would also be remiss if we did not mention the fact that despite all the false information regarding Ms. Samuels and the student teacher incident, there has not been one solitary complaint about how Ms. Samuels treats, cares for, looks after, teaches, educates, uplifts, enriches, and loves the children at Marshall Elementary School.

We have also become aware of a vile social media post that was precipitated by the barrage of hateful missives that have been directed toward Ms. Samuels. We have a copy of the post and we are forwarding it to the office of the New Jersey Attorney General and Newark field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their consideration.

We demand that the District ensure that it retains Ms. Samuels and her wealth of experience and knowledge in educating the children of Marshall Elementary School since that fact is not in dispute.

Photo: Shutterstock

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