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Despite Superintendent Denise Lowe’s recommendation, the board of education voted not to have community activist John Muhammad speak to students.

At last week’s board of education meeting, Lowe recommended board approval for Muhammad’s presentation, “The Cease Fire Movement,” to be put on at schools in the district according to the board agenda.

Muhammad, who is a minister in the Nation of Islam, founded the G.A.N.G. (Going After the Next Generation) organization, the meeting agenda said. The presentation would target boys and girls in two separate groups at the middle school, the alternative school and the high school on May 30, May 31 and June 1. The cost of the presentations per session was $750, totaling $2,250.

The board’s vote was split four-to-four, meaning the motion did not carry.

Before the vote, board member Angela Ahbez-Anderson asked for more background information on Muhammad and his credentials.

Muhammad has given this workshop to students in the district in the past, Lowe [pictured above, right, at an April meeting] said, and “the students wanted him back for more followup.” He also has spoken to students in Neptune and Long Branch, she said.

At his prior presentations in Asbury Park, “there were things that were said that [students] wouldn’t say to anyone else in the district,” Lowe said. “Minister Muhammad gets them to talk.”

Muhammad is a community activist who “has an extensive background in conflict resolution,” Lowe said. “He has mediated several sessions with the Bloods and the Crips.”

“Heavy, heavy gang leaders in this community … have trusted him and as a result, there’s information he has that no one has,” Lowe said. “He helps kids with wrestling the gang issues.”

Board members asked the superintendent for Muhammad’s credentials at a previous workshop meeting as well.

“He’s an activist,” Lowe said. “He’s an organizer. His credentials are he’s a community leader.”

 

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