“I want a public apology [for] this attempt of a public lynching of a Black woman.”

That’s Dawn Hayes, former president and current member of the Newark Board of Education, speaking at a board meeting earlier this week. (Full remarks at the bottom.) She’s demanding a public apology from Newark Public Schools after it petitioned the state to have her removed as a board member due to an “irreconcilable conflict of interest.” State Administrative Law Judge William J. Courtney just ruled that NPS’s argument is weak and backed by zero evidence.

What is going on here? 

Hayes’s daughter Akela attended the Newark School of Global Studies where she was the victim of deeply documented anti-Black racism. Her mother Dawn was one of many people, organizations, and news outlets filing requests for the district to release a report, paid for by taxpayers and written by Lauren Wells, Mayor Ras Baraka’s former educational czar, that validated the numerous charges. Specifically, administrators failed to “‘quickly and consistently’ respond to racist and bigoted incidents against Black students and teachers.” Despite numerous requests, the district refused to release the report.

Then Akela, who just turned 18, filed a tort claim with the district, notifying them she was going to sue them for “pervasive and consistent discrimination, sexual harassment, assault, battery, intimidation, bullying, cyber-bullying, emotional distress, and other inappropriate and unlawful treatment.” From Chalkbeat: 

“She also alleges [Newark Superintendent Roger] León and Global Studies principal Nelson Ruiz are liable for ‘substantial monetary and non-monetary damages’ for violating their obligation to protect the former student from ‘the physical and psychological harms’ she experienced.”

Akela is suing the district, not her mother. But Leon and his gang are trying to cover it up by filing the petition, just denied by the judge, to get rid of Dawn Hayes.

How do we know these serious charges against the high school and NPS leaders were validated?

Because, just after the judge ruled, someone leaked a draft copy to Chalkbeat. Here’s the summary:

“The draft report paints a picture of a campus where Black students and teachers reported being called racial slurs by Latino students, the N-word was commonly used among non-Black students, and where complaints by Black students were often dismissed or minimized by administrators and non-Black staff. A male student was repeatedly called an anti-gay slur in class while a teacher was present, and other students made threats to “take off” and “stomp on” the hijabs of Black and Arab Muslim female teachers, according to the review.”

This is how the public finds out what is happening in one of our schools: from a leaked report, paid for with our tax money, that Leon has kept secret from parents, from the Newark Teachers Union, from NAACP Newark,  from news platforms, and from me. From the young daughter of a conscientious school board member who was so traumatized by her experience in high school that she’s still suffering emotional distress.

Our children were in a harmful environment. Maybe they still are. NPS covered up the proof that it was harmful. This is your school district, Newark, and a former board president is saying it is time for Roger to go. As the head of the Newark NAACP, Deborah Smith Gregory, said at the same meeting Hayes spoke out, “our kids deserve better than what they’ve been getting.”

Remarks from Dawn Hayes on January 11, 2025

President Council. I want a public apology as I had to deal with public scrutiny and results of false information given to you and my board colleagues by those entrusted to guide us based on laws they are sworn to uphold. If all the thoughts for one second that put in those evil resolutions was going to have a positive outcome, God knows best and all praises are due to God in all situations.

Thank you. For those who voted no, I forgive those who didn’t have the courage to vote yes. Who had the, who voted yes. Sit on the wrong side of history. And that’s between you and God. 

I have been in the news for weeks and I have signed up for this, so I’m not too upset. And I want to thank the reporters who are telling an accurate account of what is happening. 

However, we’re all missing a point. It’s not about me being unseated as an elected position from the city of Newark residence. It’s not about the judge dismissing the case. It’s not about the resolutions for my lawyer fees to be paid, to not be paid for the ethics charges that were given to me unjustly. It’s not about the Global Studies report that board members never had access to unless we were under the watchful eye of the General Council and still do not have access to. It’s not about my daughter’s pending lawsuit.

It’s about the students who stood before us who were exhausted after being harmed and ignored. This attempt of public lynching of a black woman will not be done without the truth being stated. I stand on truth. I do not stand on the business or the busyness of evil spirited people. 

It is about the city of Newark and the climate we are in, in making Newark a safer place for the generation that can grow, learn, and be great. I have the pleasure of reading the students. I have the pleasure of students reading to me. I’ve also sat and held hands of parents who children were lost to gun violence and I’ve held flowers and given them to parents who children died from suicide after being bullied. So unless we get over our egos, respect will be demanded.