TOO MUCH HATE
Racism and sexism prevail in Hamilton, two school board candidates say in debate >>
HAMILTON >> Racism, sexism and other societal ills of hatred and discrimination are active and prevalent in this 40-square-mile township, according to a local school board member who seeks re-election and a lawyer who hopes to get elected to Hamilton’s Board of Education this fall.
“There is definitely racism and sexism in this community,” Dr. Susan Ferrara, an outspoken Hamilton school board member, said Thursday during a candidates’ forum hosted at Saint Phillips Baptist Church. “I live it every single day. And when I am not living it, my daughter who is Chinese lives it.”
Ferrara, a former ABC News researcher and editor with a doctoral degree in communications, said the bigotry within this community of 90,000 residents is particularly evident on social media.
“Some of the things and posts I see on Facebook are so incredibly offensive,” she said. “And quite honestly, I think the problem is not the students, I think it’s the adults. The adults in this community need to grow up. I hate to sound so harsh, but I really feel that way.”
“It is very unsettling, however, to have a child who is accosted or shoved aside because she looks Chinese,” Ferrara added. “The adults need to look in the mirror. The adults need to start thinking about what our community should look like, and the children are going to lead us.”
Hamilton Democratic Committee member and practicing attorney Janna Sheiman said racism, sexism and general hatred “are prevalent” in this township she calls home. “And unfortunately,” she added, “I don’t think we are in a time where we are really going to see it completely eradicated. It is inherent in the town.”
Sheiman is one of the nine candidates running for Hamilton school board this year. She said the district may help combat racism by bringing students together from Steinert, Nottingham and Hamilton West high schools, which would allow them to “learn more about people of different cultures, different religions, to be able to further educate themselves and to be introduced to more opportunities, to be introduced to new ideas that they are then able to take back to their school, back to their friends, and pass on that information,” she said at Thursday’s candidate forum.
“It is through knowledge and understanding that we will ultimately be able to try and address some of these issues,” Sheiman added, “but right now we still have a very long way to go.”
Incumbent school board member Richard Kanka, who is running for re-election in the Nov. 6 election, said the Hamilton Township School District over the last three years has seen a sharp decrease in harassment, intimidation and bullying.
“I don’t see any signs of racism with any of these kids,” Kanka added, noting he has visited many of the township’s elementary schools and has personally witnessed students getting along with one another.
If there is any racism or sexism in Hamilton’s public schools, “It is very, very few and far in between,” Kanka said at the meet-and-greet forum. “So I think our programs are helping out because the staff has been educated, and we are educating our kids to learn to respect each other.”
School board candidate Chandler Georgiou, a Rutgers University student who graduated from Steinert High School two years ago, said the district must “diversify each kid’s education” so each student may learn the cultures of their peers.
“What we can do is try to get everyone an equal education and a fair opportunity,” he said at Thursday’s forum, “and over time the racial barriers that are faced will eventually phase themselves out, because if everyone has the equal opportunity to succeed in life, they will have the equal opportunity to make the same money and move out of what is so-called the poorer areas of our town and make the monetary value of their areas rise up and make other people want to move in and make others move out.”
“There is no need to put someone down based off their sex, their race or their gender or however they identify themselves,” Georgiou added. “We need to look at people as people. We are all humans. We are all equal. We are all put here to help each other and to help benefit the environment and the community. If we take any of that away from someone, we are taking away their right to be a human; we are taking away their humanity; we are making them less than us. So we as people have no more right than anyone else to take that away from someone.”
Nine candidates are running for Hamilton school board this year, but only four of them participated in Thursday’s forum at the predominantly African-American church off Parkinson Avenue.
The incumbents Ferrara and Kanka hope to win reelection next month to another three-year term and participated in Thursday’s forum along with Sheiman and Georgiou. At least one new board member will be elected this year, because incumbent Michelle Episcopo is not seeking re-election to a second term.
Some of the candidates who did not attend Thursday’s forum posted comments on the Saint Phillips Baptist Church Facebook page calling shenanigans on the event.
The Rev. Joseph E. Woods, pastor of the church, denied any impropriety.
“It was a pleasure to host and moderate the candidates’ night,” Woods said in a Facebook comment. “For clarity, no candidate received questions prior to tonight’s event.”
“Of course they were,” school board candidate Richard C. Crockett III said in a reply to Woods’ Facebook comment. “That info was leaked this morning, and in a house of worship.”
School board candidates Crockett, Cynthia A. Simon and Sherry Morency are running on a bracketed slate under the guidance of their campaign manager David Henderson.
“I wish to say that myself, Rich Crockett and Sherry Morency did not receive the questions in advance,” Simon said about the candidates’ forum that was livestreamed on Facebook, “but it appears that these candidates did.”
Crockett, an outspoken Hamilton resident who works for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, used the church’s Facebook page as a platform to promote his slate, which boycotted the candidates’ forum.
“You want to remain status quo, go ahead vote for the puppets and the rubber stampers,” he said in a Facebook comment. “You want your voice heard, your concerns listened to and action taken. You know what three to vote for.”
School board candidates Angelo Hall and Girard A. Casale also did not attend Thursday’s hour-long forum. The four candidates who attended talked about substance abuse, the role of the school board, transparency and the merits of Hamilton Township Superintendent of Schools Scott Rocco in addition to talking about sexism, racism and bigotry.