Newark parent leader arrested, jailed, after criticizing state plan to close schools....
UPDATE:
Newark public school parents vs Cami AndersonInbox
Inbox
Before we get to that story there is this from a Newark teacher:
Inclement Weather - Schools Closed February 5, 2014
In the interest of the safety of our students, and due to hazardous weather conditions, all Newark Public Schools are CLOSED on Wednesday, February 5, 2014. All events, meetings and after school programs are also canceled. The NPS central office will be open at 10:00AM with a delayed opening for staff.In a stunning reversal, Anderson bowed to community pressure and announced closure of Newark Public Schools in advance of storm. At 10:49 Tuesday night, I received a text message from my friend at another school, "Just got call no school tom." I immediately texted back, "Is this a joke? It is not on website." In a matter of minutes, the closure was posted on the website. At 11:24 I received my robocall. What happened Cami? Did you read Braun, Jersey Jazzman and Ed Notes, or did the Star Ledger your staunch supporter do you in? Have you miraculously gained an appreciation for the safety of the lives of the children and adults impacted by your decisions? Did Christie call you to say, "Please Cami! I have enough headaches!" Did Cerf. send you an e-mail? Was it Devine intervention? We are One Newark, but perhaps not in the manner the "reformers" intended.
All the blogs mentioned above reported the previous "closing" of Newark schools in the snow storm before last at around 8AM in the morning in what looked like political retaliation against teacher resistance.
Here are some links to my posts which link to the others.
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Now to the arrest. First this comment on the Braun blog:
Alicia Malavehttp://bobbraunsledger.com/newark-parent-leader-arrested-jailed-after-criticizing-state-plan-to-close-schools/
Newark community we have to stand together otherwise we are submitting to their agenda. Every resource is being used against the community. The superintendent refers to our kids as a danger on the streets where they live, the teachers are ineffective according to the standardized tests that do not measure the real improvements in the schools. Principals are penalized for speaking up. The police is being used in numbers during Advisory Board meetings. Even when school members announce that they will drive around Cedar Street and honk their horns in protest of the principals’ suspension the police blocked the access to Cedar St. and officers were walking up and down the block. Now this arrest without a clear cause. They are stripping this community of what is rightfully ours. Taking our schools, selling our buildings, using our students as bargaining chips but we have the right to protest, the right to have an education that is provided by highly qualified teachers and the right to run our schools. People of Newark is time to stand up and demand what is ours.
And the story below the break.
Newark parent leader arrested, jailed, after criticizing state plan to close schools.
A parent leader who criticized the “One Newark” plan pushed by state school superintendent Cami Anderson was arrested yesterday on charges he assaulted a central office administrator. Daryn Martin, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at the Ivy Hill School, was charged with ”aggravated assault” but released on his own recognizance. If convicted, he faces three to five years in jail.Martin, a deacon for he New Hope Baptist Church in Jersey City, said he was called by a Newark police detective and asked to come to headquarters to sign a formal complaint. He had earlier filed a criminal complaint against Tiffany Hardrick, an assistant school superintendent, but the detective said he did not have the right address on the form. It apparently was a ruse to get Martin to come to police headquarters so he could be arrested. When he arrived shortly before 2:30 pm, he was confronted by a detective who told him:
“Here’s the deal, Mr. Martin. The simple assault charge against you has been elevated to aggravated assault because she is a public official.”
Martin said, “What charge? There’s no charge against me.” Despite his protests, he was handcuffed and fingerprinted. The police took a mug shot and swabbed his cheek for DNA samples. Then he was placed in a cell with two other inmates.
Robert Pickett of West Orange, Martin’s lawyer, said his client’s arrest amounted to “intimidation.” Martin was a vocal critic of plans by state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson to close, transfer to charters or otherwise “repurpose” nearly half of the city’s public schools.
Martin had appeared at a Trenton press conference called by state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) when Rice introduced legislation aimed at blocking the closing of neighborhood schools in Newark and other cities.
“We intend to fight these charges aggressively,” Pickett said. “Mr. Martin will not be intimidated.”
Simple assault charges are automatically elevated to a much more serious crime if the victim is a public official, including a school employee.
Martin’s troubles with Anderson began Jan. 15 when he posted notices of a PTO meeting at the Ivy Hill School. Later, he witnessed Hardrick and another central office administrator, Gary Beidleman, tearing down the notices, which had been approved by school principal Lisa Brown.
Martin said that, when he demanded they stop, Hardrick pushed him twice. He later filed a police complaint against Hardrick but, two days later, he was banned from entering the school his two children attend. The letter notifying him of the ban accused him of pushing Hardrick and Beidleman although a report filed by a school security officer about the incident mentioned no pushing. At the time, neither Newark police nor the school administration would say whether any charges had been pressed against Martin.
Martin then joined a federal law suit filed by five school principals against Anderson, charging she violated their First Amendment rights. The principals were suspended after speaking about the “One Newark” plan at a community forum. After widespread community outrage, the five were taken off suspension. Brown did not speak at the forum but was apparently suspended for supporting Martin.
“This takes the fight against Anderson to a whole new level,” Martin said after his release from jail last night. “I am not going to stop speaking out against what she is doing to the children of Newark.”
Pickett said he believed the school district was “trying to paint my client as a bad guy to help their defense against the federal suit.” The attorney said their action “just increased the potential damages against them.”
Martin insisted he had no idea he would be arrested when he was lured to police headquarters. He said detectives spoke to him but did not read him his Miranda rights that direct him to remain silent if he faced arrest. He also said he was never brought before a judge to give his side of what happened.
“It was a set up,” he said. Martin accused the police of working with the school board to created a “massive cover-up” of the circumstances of his arrest.
Martin said he had never been arrested before.
Martin, a union organizer for 1199J, National Union of Hosital and Health Care Workers, said he was “sorry” he had cost the taxpayers money because he was fed a prison meal of franks and beans, a bottle of water, and oatmeal cookies. Just as a bus came to take inmates to the county jail, he said, he was told he could go home.
Today they closed schools - http://www.nps.k12.nj.us/site/
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