MY NAME NO GAME
Malcolm X. Combs files human rights case vs. Queens school
FIRST IT WAS his sweater. Now it’s his pride.
Christ the King High School student Malcolm Xavier Combs is rolling up his sleeves and fighting back with a complaint filed to the city Human Rights Commission over his school’s refusal to allow him to have the name “Malcolm X” printed on his senior sweater.
Officials at the school in Middle Village, Queens, spiked 17-year-old Malcolm’s request to put his name on the back of his sweater two months ago — sparking fiery protests and grabbing headlines around the world. The teen is named for slain 1960s black activist Malcolm X.
Despite the local and global uproar, school administrators still refuse to allow Malcolm to print his actual name on his school sweater.
His parents received a refund March 1 for the $40 sweater, “making it clear” that administrators were not moved, according to the complaint the teen’s attorney Nathaniel Smith filed Tuesday.
National Action Network spokesman the Rev. Kevin McCall, who’s been working with Malcolm and his lawyer on the issue, said that’s not good enough.
“It’s been 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and we still must continue to keep the pressure on and fight against discrimination just like he did,” McCall said. “We will not sit back and allow this school to disrespect Malcolm X.”
Malcolm, who’s an honor roll student, said in his complaint that all of his classmates are proudly wearing their sweaters in school “as an important symbol of their academic success and upcoming graduation.”
“I respectfully request that the commission act as soon as possible so that I will not be singled out or isolated during the remaining months of the school year,” the complaint says.
Seth Hoy, a spokesman for the city’s human rights panel, could not confirm or deny that a complaint was filed.
Christ the King Chairman Serphin Maltese confirmed receiving a letter from Smith before spring break last Friday but had not been notified of the formal complaint.
“The school has an excellent reputation,” Maltese said. “Last time I checked, we had seven books in our library on Malcolm X.”
Malcolm (photo inset) said he was pulled out of one of his Advanced Placement classes in February by Assistant Principal Veronica Arbitello, who told him he would not be permitted to have his name printed on his school sweater. The student said he was insulted when Arbitello told him he shouldn’t want to be associated with a “person like that.” Malcolm’s namesake was an African-American Muslim civil rights leader who was assassinated in Washington Heights at age 39 in 1965. Malcolm said Arbitello and her husband, school basketball coach Joe Arbitello, laughed at him and she called him the “new Malcolm X.” Arbitello didn’t respond to a call for comment.