Assignment to NBHS Students (Alleged) Contains Inflammatory Smears Against Mahmoud Khalil: BOE Mtg Tue, Apr 1, 7pm, NBHS – CAIR Statement Linked
According to friends of a New Brunswick High School student’s family, a social studies teacher at New Brunswick High School gave an assignment to debate “Mamoud (sp.) Khalil” and whether his abduction and detention by ICE is warranted.
A copy of the alleged assignment from New Brunswick High School firstly insulted Mahmoud Khalil, and the Islamic faith in general by dropping the h from the first name. The alleged assignment repeated the mispelling 16 times – that was with obvious intent to mock the name which is a very popular name of the Islamic faith and a derivative of Mohammed. If this a-smear-ment – alleged – really was passed out to students by a teacher at New Brunswick High School it was with obvious intent to create ridicule and hostility to those of Islamic faith at the school. Setting aside the smearing statements about Mahmoud Khalil, which will not be published here so as not to further – just the mockery of the name and the repetition of this mockery itself shows – if this assignment is accurate as being distributed on Instagram – it would suggest that this teacher is not fit to teach in public or even private schools.
The smears listed in the alleged assignment included many patently false accusations of Mahmoud Khalil. My suggestion to the teacher who did this allegedly would be to get yourself a defense lawyer because you can not just make things up and write them and publish accusations about people. That IS how much of politics proceeds these days, extreme bloviators like Trump, Musk, Vance, et. al. – believe that their saying something makes it true. Apparently if this assignment is truly the product of New Brunswick High School, no doubt the whole district could be on the hook for the liability. This editor’s recommendation to the district if that is the case is to cut your losses and deal with your personnel problem with extreme haste. Even still you are likely on the hook if this assignment really was issued there.
The following is a slightly edited call to action from the community voices demanding justice and action on this by the allegedly culpable New Brunswick School District:
The assignment prompt provided by <teacher> was full of false claims and biased language. <Teacher> is a former police officer with the Perth Amboy PD. He has demonstrated he’s a danger to our students and unfit to teach in the public education system. We demand New Brunswick High School take swift action to address the situation and protect our students.
Please take the following actions NOW:
1) Call Principal, Matt Rusnak, at 732-745-5300 ext 3001. 📞
2) Attend the next New Brunswick BOE meeting on Tues, April 1 at 7 pm at New Brunswick High School, 1000 Somerset St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901.
3) Send e-mail to the school board – an e-mail sample with e-mail addresses follows:
—–Original Message—–
From: Bob Witanek <bwitanek@igc.org>
Sent: Mar 27, 2025 10:57 AM
To: <Jennifer_sevilla@nbpsnj.net>, <ivan_adorno@nbpsnj.net>, <ashley_caldwell@nbpsnj.net>, <diana_jaquez@nbpsnj.net>, <yesenia_medina-hernandez@nbpsnj.net>, <janessa_ortiz@nbpsnj.net>, <janessa_ortiz@nbpsnj.net>, <edward_spencer@nbpsnj.net>, <edward_spencer@nbpsnj.net>, <emely_cruzmemije@nbpsnj.net>, <emely_cruzmemije@nbpsnj.net>
Subject: Investigate NB School Board / HS Defamatory Smear
Dear Board Members,
By now you are likely aware that New Brunswick High School allegedly assigned a social studies exercise with defamatory smears of Columbia former student Mahmoud Khalil with a complete set of false statements and accusations based on things he is accused of not saying and an intentional misspelling of his Islamic based first name (Mahmoud is a derivative of Mohammed the prophet of Islam).
The first task you have is to verify your teacher did use the defamatory document. Once that is determined – you need to determine if the Principal of NBHS, the teacher who allegedly did this supervisor and any of his colleagues or any other staff of New Brunswick schools was aware and gave approval for this teacher who allegedly brought smearing lies and platformed them as a school assignment.
Once you have the complete set of responsible parties identified – i would then advise you to limit New Brunswick schools liability by removing all responsible parties – no matter how high up it goes from employment.
If administration and colleagues were not aware – I certainly hope that is the case – then the swift action against the alleged responsible party would probably be the best way to reduce your liability from any claims made by any alleged injured party. But no matter how high it goes – whoever knew about the alleged assignment (A-SMEAR-MENT) before it was administered should be removed from services to New Brunswick’s children.
Education of staff on Islamophobia and also respect for laws regarding defamation and libelous behavior should also be provided to reduce your own liability in this alleged matter and going forward.
Sincerely,
Bob Witanek Editor FightBackBetter
