Jersey City Mayor James Solomon said that an appointed board of education isn’t the answer in light of the arrest of special needs parent Emily Pecot at last week’s school board meeting, though he called such an action “not appropriate.”
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The former Ward E councilman spoke for about an hour at last night’s Riverview Neighborhood Association meeting at the Christa McAuliffe School last night and was inevitably asked about the state of the BOE and Pecot being arrested for defiant trespass.
He began by stating he is committed to seeing the public schools thrive, noting all three of his daughters are students there, as well as that he sought to have a deputy mayor for education, Dr. Dia Bryant, to act as a liaison to the BOE.
“The best way to try to create change is to engage and support candidates who you think are running for the right reasons, that have a vision for strong public schools. And think too often we haven’t had engagement in our public school elections,” Solomon expressed.
“I don’t want to move to a tiered system or a mayoral control system, I don’t think those are the solutions. The solutions are for us to get engaged. Obviously, I think like many of us, I am troubled by the arrest. I think obviously people have a right to speak out, a right to engage in civil disobedience, and certainly as a council member for eight years, we had multiple times in our council chambers where we had people engaging in protest.”
He further stated that while there has to be a balance where the governing body can conduct their business, but in the case of his tenure on the City Council, he never saw a scenario that escalated beyond someone being escorted out of the room.
“And I think going above and beyond that is not appropriate,” Solomon added, noting that the city will review how the police officers on the scene handled the situation and encourage the BOE to act differently in the future.
Solomon is the fourth city official to speak out against the arrest of Pecot, who was allegedly disrupting last week’s meeting by yelling out from the audience and footage of the incident first uploaded by HCV went viral.
On Tuesday, Ward E Councilwoman Eleana Little posted an email exchange between herself and BOE President Noemi Velazquez, with Little eliciting an angry response from Velazquez after asking the board not to limit public comment and only make arrests in dire situations.
That was followed yesterday by Councilmen Joel Brooks and Jake Ephros saying they felt compelled to denounce “the chaos at the BOE” and also spoke in support of Little.
Additionally, BOE Trustees Dr. Matthew Schneider and Tia Rezabala wrote in a joint letter to the editor that they felt it was wrong to arrest Pecot and police should only be getting involved at their meetings as a last resort.
Mayoral control is the answer. This way, someone can be held accountable.