Dear Editor:
I’m writing in response to the letter written on 10/26/14 by school board president Sangeeta Ranade’s husband in which he attempts to mislead your readers about comments I made at the June 2012 Board of Education meeting.
Sangeeta’s husband and my political opponents, in their frenzied and desperate attempt to undermine my candidacy, have simply shown they are willing to say and do anything to win. At the June 2012 board meeting in question, the nine-member Board of Education — including one of my opponents who was a board member at the time –lamented to the public that they were under siege with threats and pressure from state and elected officials who were putting a figurative gun to their heads to force them to select Marcia Lyles as our new school superintendent. My figurative reply to the board was to say they should stand up to outside influences and not be bullied. I believe the voting public is intelligent enough to know the difference between a figurative and literal statement.
This letter from Sangeeta’s husband was a complete lie. The fact that the school board president’s husband would deliberately contort my words to malign my character for the sake of an election is really troubling.
Let the record show that I have demonstrated — by my words and actions — my commitment to the children of Jersey City Public Schools. I have attended practically every board meeting for the past 14 years and have a proven track-record of standing up on the issues that parents and the community care about most. I stood up and said “no” when the current board members voted “yes” to limit the public’s right to free speech at board meetings — a decision the ACLU recently condemned. I stood up when the current board members remained silent while the teacher and support staff contracts languished for almost two years. And I stood up and said “no” when the current board voted to hire substitute teachers from a outsourced, private company.
As a board member, voters can count on me to continue to stand up for Jersey City Children First — even when faced with threats from outside interests.
Lorenzo Richardson 1H