Newark BOE Trustee Reginald Bledsoe released the following statement:

“The Islamic community is essential to the fabric of our country’s identity. There is no place in the universe for this type of bias behavior. I cannot believe in 2019 we are still dealing with issues around race and religion. This bias behavior is not only disruptive but extremely dangerous to our democracy and educational system. No one who hold bigoted, hateful and hostile values should play a pivotal role in the education of our children. It’s imperative that each and every education official regardless of where they are should respect and understand the values of inclusion.”

These opinions are solely my own and are not the opinions of my employer and the Newark Board of Education.