Wayne Muslims Upset Over Lack of Response from School Board Trustees

WAYNE, NJ – A contingent of Wayne’s Muslim community had a strong showing at last week’s Wayne Board of Education meeting. They were there to ask why their emails were not getting responses from school board trustees. The issues brought up were the Schuyler-Colfax quiz that contained a controversial question, which some believed was anti-Muslim, the yearbook post, which they said was one-sided and the display of the Palestinian flag at the Wayne Hills graduation.

The Rhetoric was strong and school board trustees responded, “hurt” and “saddened” by the accusations that were being leveled at them during the meeting.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TAPINTO.NET NEWSLETTER

Wayne resident Wassim Abedrabbo spoke of “vendor failures” and “curriculum issues.”

“Vendor failures being the issue that we saw with the images and information related to our students in the yearbook this year,” he said. “The curriculum issues, possibly the Schulyer-Colfax question that our community was very upset about. Or even worse than those two: the limiting and silencing of student expression in their environments of happiness and joy like graduation day.”

He went on to say that "the ask is simple.”

“We want our students to feel safe and represented in their spaces of education, receiving their entitled representation and feeling of security,” said Abedrabbo. “To be respected for who they are and nurtured to grow in self-confidence in an environment where who they are is respected.”

DOWNLOAD THE FREE TAPINTO APP FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS. AVAILABLE IN THE APPLE STORE AND THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE .

Several speakers spoke about how their emails have been, for the most part, ignored.

“I took the time to e-mail you over a month ago with a very heartfelt e-mail by my own child and her experience,” said resident Abdul Alzindani. “I got two responses from 10 of you. Two. The people that are supposed to be taking care of our children, making sure that they're brought up in a good school system. Two of you; that's 20%. You, as a board, have failed us.”

“We're not hearing from you,” he added. “We don't exist to you. That is the feeling from all of us.”

Superintendent of Wayne Schools, Dr. Mark Toback explained that the board meets only once per month and that board members are not allowed to discuss school issues unless its in an executive session or in a public board meeting. It was nearly a month-and-a-half between the July and August board meetings, so, the Superintendent said that addressing the issues raised in the emails had to wait till the August 22 ^nd meeting.

One resident told the board that their lack of response to their emails, “has led us to a clear conclusion that we don't matter. We're not your constituents. We're not the right color. We're not the right people. You would respond if it mattered, right? So, we're not the people you care about.”

“In case you haven't picked up on it, we have been sharing your responses,” she added. “We have groups that are monitoring you; we're sharing information about everything you're giving us.”

And this turned out to be the reason why school board trustees Mark Faber and Matt Giordano did not respond to the emails.

“Monitoring emails” and “disseminating” responses “sounds very ominous,” said Giordano. “If I make the mistake of wording something wrong, I’ve just handed a bunch of very angry people…fuel.”

Faber said, “If I am going to respond and my emails are going to be spread all over the place and they're going to be put up on social media and they're going to be misconstrued, I'm not playing that game. Because I'm not here to pick sides.”

The school board members expressed sadness, mentioned being offended and “hurt” by the accusations made against them that evening.

“In my tenure on this board, I've been accused of a lot of things,” said BOE President Don Pavlak. “People have made a lot of comments about myself, my family, you name it. But I've never been so heartbroken as I was tonight. To get told that I don't care - I don't care about people, I don't care about a family, children. I care.”

As each trustee took turns speaking at the end of the meeting, they explained that their role was to serve all students and that “children learn in safe environments and respected environments, and that's what we try to do... and I think we take that to the ultimate level,” said Vice President of the Board, Harry Prassakos.

Respect and kindness were the message many of the board members tried to get across.

“I urge the parents of our community to talk to your students and stress the importance of kindness,” said Trustee Barbara Rigoglioso, “Because that falls under everything.”

“We have two groups of people that are very important to our district; to our community, that are now at polar opposites - more so than ever before,” said Faber. “We are left with trying to balance the situation, where we have these students sharing space in classrooms, buildings, activities every single day.”

“ What you have to understand is that nothing we do in this situation for either side is going to be enough,” Faber continued . “ How do you create a safe space in school, when [students] are feeling the anxiety of their parents at home, and they're bringing that anxiety into the school? So please, you want to help us? Start at home. tell your kids to be compassionate to other people. Tell them that when they go into school and see somebody who has a different perspective or a different belief, respect it. If everybody did that and everybody told their children to do that, we wouldn't have the problems we have now.”

Pavlak made a promise that night to hold a community round table “towards the end of September/beginning of October.”

“I invite anybody who wants to come in to have constructive conversation,” he said. “Not to make accusations, because if we make accusations and accuse each other of everything, we're not going to solve anything.”

“We're all in this together, no matter who we are or what we are,” said Pavlak in conclusion. “We're here together and we need to work it out. I ask everybody: let's pray together. let's have peace together, let's work together. That's what it's about and we can do that as a community. Wayne is really great about coming together let's do that.”

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net