Panel votes to suspend Ms. Lawson-Muhammad

sac said:
 That's strange considering how many NJ retirees live in FL and probably scoped it out before moving down there.  Do they really want to discourage that migration (of people and $$$) into their state?

 Sarasota FL, if you move register your car ASAP. 


DaveSchmidt said:
An excellent op-ed in today’s Times that addresses several themes raised in this thread, by a man (Teaneck native, Penn grad) whose acuity has long been obvious to Phillies fans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/opinion/sunday/doug-glanville-cubs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Excellent article (and I'm not just saying that because I went to school with Doug, or that his mom was one of my best advanced math teachers). 


I recently came across this comic strip by Keith (Keef) Knight that brings up similar themes in a brief format:

http://www.kchronicles.com/


DaveSchmidt said:
Another excerpt:

If the Cubs fan is innocent, he will be O.K. That would be the just outcome. But racism will remain. Being wrongfully accused, while unfair, is not the same as living a life where your skin color automatically makes you a target. Being on guard about hate is not “political.” It is a matter of simple self-protection.

 Clearly everyone's 'racism graph' will have different points plotted based on their experience.  I hope we can agree that this is not automatically due to malice.    Based on the above excerpt from the article, it seems like the author is condoning kneejerk  condemnation as racism any given event because any potential damage done to the actor in question will be less than that suffered by victims of racism in general.  I think that if this is indeed a point he is trying to make, allies in the struggle against racism will be lost.  


Back to the original topic, does anyone know the status of SLM's appeal?  Did she file a formal appeal regarding the panel's decision?



Red_Barchetta said:

 Clearly everyone's 'racism graph' will have different points plotted based on their experience.  I hope we can agree that this is not automatically due to malice.    Based on the above excerpt from the article, it seems like the author is condoning kneejerk  condemnation as racism any given event because any potential damage done to the actor in question will be less than that suffered by victims of racism in general.  I think that if this is indeed a point he is trying to make, allies in the struggle against racism will be lost.  

The author — his name is Doug Glanville — is not condoning a knee-jerk condemnation of racism, which should be clear from the rest of the column. (For instance: “Yes, I can be wrong about whether a particular ambiguous episode is racist.”) What Glanville is countering in that excerpt, I believe, is the opposite knee-jerk reaction: that racism must be overtly malicious and that ambiguous actions deserve the benefit of the doubt, because we whites all know it’s usually a misunderstanding, and the very last thing we’d ever want is for an innocent person to be wrongly accused.

As for allies in the struggle, if I were black I think I’d be done by now with trying to meet allies on their terms, rather than expecting them to meet me on mine.

sprout said:

Excellent article (and I'm not just saying that because I went to school with Doug, or that his mom was one of my best advanced math teachers). 

(Cool!)


Did SLM appeal the ruling?

According to the Village Green article she had "13 days to take exception to the sanctions and 30 days to appeal the Commission's findings." 


With the prodding of black students, white Owatonna residents did what they had mostly had the luxury of avoiding: talk about race.

That’s a line from a Times article last week, about what happened when a teenager’s Snapchat photo set off racial tensions in a 90 percent white community in Minnesota. Here’s Eman, a Somali-American high school sophomore:

“I knew at some point we were going to have to work it out. I don’t like not fixing stuff, especially when it comes to race.”

A few years ago I asked flimbro what gave him hope for America, and he said young activists. In Owatonna, Minn., there’s some hope.

Few Talked About Race at This School. Then a Student Posted a Racist Slur.


Ok so u r going further and further down this rabbit hole of equating the incident in question ( traffic stop gone awry) with the very real and systemic issues that POC face each day and the need to engage with uncomfortable conversation about it. Kind of insulting, bro.You made your point several comments ago, and my sense is that it’s low hanging fruit compared to the huge hypocrisy of “diversity” that exists in our towns.


annielou said:

Kind of insulting, bro.

Noted, annielou.

It’s a good article that was worth sharing, and since the topic had come up in this discussion, I posted it here.


yahooyahoo said:
Did SLM appeal the ruling?

I called the School Ethics Commission this afternoon to ask and was told I’d need to file a public records request. To me, it’s not worth the trouble, but that appears to be the route if you’d like to pursue it.


DaveSchmidt said:


yahooyahoo said:
Did SLM appeal the ruling?
I called the School Ethics Commission this afternoon to ask and was told I’d need to file a public records request. To me, it’s not worth the trouble, but that appears to be the route if you’d like to pursue it.

Hmmm... this story was all the rage when the Ethics Board issued their ruling.  SLM and her supporters seem to want it to disappear now.


yahooyahoo said:

Hmmm... this story was all the rage when the Ethics Board issued their ruling.  SLM and her supporters seem to want it to disappear now.

Lawson-Muhammad had 30 days to appeal (overlapping with the 13-day exceptions period, as I read the statute), then had 20 days to file a brief. The commission then had 20 days to file its own brief, and Lawson-Muhammad 10 more days to respond to that. Which would take us exactly to today.

I may be off a few days, since there’s some lag time for delivering paperwork by mail. In the other direction, either side may not have taken all the time that was allowed. In any case, if there was an appeal, it looks like it might be in the commissioner’s hands now, and who knows what summer does to the timing.

If you fax your OPRA request now, it might be there waiting when the commissioner renders his decision.


Maybe I'll wait for the next PR piece for SLM by The Intercept.


Sure. But if the story’s disappearance remains on your mind, don’t say no one told you where the magic wand was.


DaveSchmidt said:


yahooyahoo said:
Did SLM appeal the ruling?
I called the School Ethics Commission this afternoon to ask and was told I’d need to file a public records request. To me, it’s not worth the trouble, but that appears to be the route if you’d like to pursue it.

 That is what they were counting on. 


Absolutely ridiculous.


Jackson_Fusion said:

 That is what they were counting on. 

Absolutely ridiculous.

They were counting on me to wait for a sign about the appeal when Lawson-Muhammad either started, or didn’t start, serving a suspension?


DaveSchmidt said:


Jackson_Fusion said:

 That is what they were counting on. 

Absolutely ridiculous.
They were counting on me to wait for a sign about the appeal when Lawson-Muhammad either started, or didn’t start, serving a suspension?

 They were counting on bureaucratic barriers making you go away. Why would that information demand a special request? Is it in some way privileged? It’s regarding an elected public official and the response to a public report, not a closed session regarding an employee. 


Jackson_Fusion said:
 They were counting on bureaucratic barriers making you go away. Why would that information demand a special request? Is it in some way privileged? It’s regarding an elected public official and the response to a public report, not a closed session regarding an employee. 

 Open records request is now standard for almost all public entities in N.J.  Example: N.J. Dept of Ag. It is pertinent to where I work. I used to be able to call and get info. Now it requires the form. WHY? 


The Open Records law was supposed to make it easier to get info. Instead, it produced roadblocks.


Formerlyjerseyjack said:


Jackson_Fusion said:
 They were counting on bureaucratic barriers making you go away. Why would that information demand a special request? Is it in some way privileged? It’s regarding an elected public official and the response to a public report, not a closed session regarding an employee. 
 Open records request is now standard for almost all public entities in N.J.  Example: N.J. Dept of Ag. It is pertinent to where I work. I used to be able to call and get info. Now it requires the form. WHY? 


The Open Records law was supposed to make it easier to get info. Instead, it produced roadblocks.

 Thanks for this. I hadn’t considered that may have been the result of a law intended to improve information flow from employees to employers, but your comment gave me an “OF COURSE IT WAS” forehead slapping moment. I need to remember to be a little more cynical.





The latest batch of appeals was just posted online, and this case isn’t among them. But Lawson-Muhammad isn’t serving a suspension yet — she participated in the June board meeting — so my guess is that she appealed and a decision is still pending.

https://www.nj.gov/education/legal/commissioner/2019decisions.shtml


Here is my guess:

SLM will utilize the appeals process as long as she can and then decide not to run for re-election.  She will finish out her term and never serve the suspension.


That would answer your question.


yahooyahoo said:
Here is my guess:

SLM will utilize the appeals process as long as she can and then decide not to run for re-election.  She will finish out her term and never serve the suspension.

From a Village Green article published yesterday:

Lawson-Muhammad confirmed to Village Green she is running for re-election in the fall, but has not formally announced.


I guess two things are important ... 

Her voting record as a member.

The episode.


Regarding the episode, would it be the same as a Christian voting for a sleaze like trump?

On the other hand, yeah, she went off the rails on one occasion. Does that disqualify her?


She also has a rather poor attendance record over the last year or so.


Formerlyjerseyjack said:
I guess two things are important ... 
Her voting record as a member.
The episode.


Regarding the episode, would it be the same as a Christian voting for a sleaze like trump?

On the other hand, yeah, she went off the rails on one occasion. Does that disqualify her?

She has said controversial things at BOE meetings.  For instance, she said that people were only talking about making repairs to CHS because the white population was increasing. “Now … that it’s a predominately white school there is a sudden willingness to invest in the school.”

https://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/consultant-south-orange-maplewood-schools-need-more-than-redistricting/



Runner_Guy said:

She has said controversial things at BOE meetings.  For instance, she said that people were only talking about making repairs to CHS because the white population was increasing. “Now … that it’s a predominately white school there is a sudden willingness to invest in the school.”
https://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/consultant-south-orange-maplewood-schools-need-more-than-redistricting/

Gets you thinking, doesn’t it.

susan1014 said:

She also has a rather poor attendance record over the last year or so.

How many meetings has she missed?


Wait. I thought that was the reason for the massive upgrades! Am I delusional?


DaveSchmidt said:


Runner_Guy said:

She has said controversial things at BOE meetings.  For instance, she said that people were only talking about making repairs to CHS because the white population was increasing. “Now … that it’s a predominately white school there is a sudden willingness to invest in the school.”
https://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/consultant-south-orange-maplewood-schools-need-more-than-redistricting/
Gets you thinking, doesn’t it.


susan1014 said:

She also has a rather poor attendance record over the last year or so.
How many meetings has she missed?

She has missed 26 of 120 BOE meetings, or 21.67%, since she became a BOE member Jan. 7, 2014.  She missed three meetings in a row - May 1, May 11, May 15, 2017. Per BOE rules and regulations, members can be dismissed if they miss three meetings in a row.  (This information is from Nextdoor where someone posted the attendance records of every BOE member.)


No one would give a hoot about her attendance record were it not for the skinhead comment


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