Marlboro K-8 board votes not to ask for Dean’s resignation

By Jeremy

(Note: Originally published in the March 26, 2015 issue of Greater Media Newspapers)

MARLBORO — The Marlboro K-8 School District Board of Education has voted not to ask for a board member’s resignation following a Facebook post and like that were deemed offensive by many members of the community.

“I will not judge a person by one mistake,” board member Debbie Mattos said. “I’m sorry, I will not. I am not a judge. What we are here to do is for the better of the good of the taxpayers and these children.”

As they did on March 10, dozens of residents turned out for a board meeting on March 17 demanding Board Vice President Victoria Dean’s resignation following comments she made and liked on her Facebook page related to the Muslim community.

As a meeting that eventually lasted six hours went on, the district’s administration building gradually emptied out. Only a handful of residents remained when the board finally voted on the matter around midnight, ultimately deciding that Dean’s actions did not warrant a request for her resignation.

“On the local board level, there is nothing we can do,” board member Dara Enny said. “I believe a mistake was made. It was awful. I also believe that people put things on their Facebook page that you find offensive all the time, and it does not always define them.”

A motion to request Dean’s resignation was made by board member Jian Kao and seconded by BonnieSue Rosenwald.

“I salute Victoria Dean for her service to the board,” Kao said before making the motion. “However, I have realized her Facebook comments resulted in negative feedback to the board, and I feel the board should react.”

The issue stemmed from an article Dean posted to her Facebook page in February about administrators in a Connecticut school district giving students the day off in honor of certain Muslim holidays.

“Pandora’s box opened,” Dean wrote on that post.

One of Dean’s Facebook friends replied to the post with a derogatory slur targeted toward Muslims and President Barack Obama. Dean subsequently liked the Facebook comment.

At the March 10 board meeting, Dean tearfully apologized for her actions in front of a packed auditorium at the Marlboro Middle School. She said the article was not posted with racist intentions, but rather out of a conversation the board recently had about whether to close Marlboro’s schools for the Chinese New Year.

Although the board cannot force Dean’s resignation, its members can ask her to resign. But on March 17, the majority of board members voted not to do so.

Board member John Dwyer addressed several Muslim residents and asked them to find forgiveness in their hearts for Dean.

“[The issue] is between Mrs. Dean and the Muslim community,” Dwyer said. “I hope it can be resolved. … I don’t know if that can be done, but I hope so, because I don’t think she’s a bad woman.”

Board member Craig Marshall agreed with Dwyer and saluted Dean for her work on the board.

“I feel that Victoria Dean is probably the best board member we have. … I think we are all human beings, and I don’t think any of us, whether we are on the board or sitting out there, has the right to judge anybody,” Marshall said.

Dean said she felt like she had faced enough repercussions for her actions.

“Believe me, there have been consequences with my family and my poor children,” she said. “Talk about being bullied. My kids were harassed the entire week because of a mistake their mother made.”

Some board members, like Rosenwald, criticized Dean’s actions and said there needed to be consequences, and she pointed out that district administrators penalize students and teachers for offensive conduct.

“Mrs. Dean hurt the Muslim community, and whether she meant it or not, she did. And she has to sit here in judgment, and she has to deal with all the communities of Marlboro,” Rosenwald said.

Rosenwald, Kao and Joanne Liu-Rudel voted “yes” on the motion to ask Dean to resign from the board, Dwyer, Marshall, Enny, Dean, Mattos and Board President Michael Lilonsky voted “no.” The motion failed, 6–3.

After the vote, several residents expressed their disappointment and asked Dean to be more sensitive of the Muslim community.

“I can tell you are a decent person, but understand we are angry when we have things like three Muslims being killed execution style,” said resident Nagwa Awad, referring to a recent incident in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “We are under attack. … It has gotten dangerous for us at this point.”

Mohamed Elrais, president of Marlboro High School’s Muslim Student Association, described the board’s actions as “hypocritical.”

“To stand here and tell me to forgive and forget — it’s offensive,” Elrais said. “Over and over again, I forgive and forget — and I’m done. Action will be taken. If it’s not here, then at the state level.”

Elrais’ sister, Rowan Elrais, a freshman at Marlboro High School, told the board she has spent most of her life being bullied for being Muslim.

“I have watched my family and everybody in my community be harassed and bullied,” the young woman said. “I would be walking down the street and get dirty looks from people, like, ‘What’s on her head?’ ‘What’s with that turban?’

“I have always been so scared to stand up for myself. The prophet has said you should stay quiet and don’t go and cause problems, and I have been trying to do that. But I can’t, because I am so tired of all this harassment and nothing being done about it.

“I have lived in this shadow because of a mistake other people have made, and now it is being labeled on top of me.”

After the meeting, Mohamed Elrais said he had lost all hope in the board members.

“If they really do believe in helping the children, then they would help the minority [population],” he said. “And it is not fair for me to sit here on a school night until 1 a.m. and have to defend myself. It’s just tiring.”