I attended a very contentious Board of Education meeting in Camden on Thursday, August 22, where the Board President, Wassim Muhammad, has the Camden community up in arms. Muhammad, who was appointed by former Camden Mayor Dana Redd (who is now under indictment on racketeering charges with political power broker George Norcross), is a former Camden social studies teacher who has been accused of pedophilia, and grooming under-aged girls, his students, to serve him sexually.
One woman successfully sued him for preying on and sexually abusing her when she was still one of his students in Cooper B. Hatch school. The court ordered Muhammad to pay the woman $1.6 million. The total cost of the case was $4.2 million. The Board of Education paid the entire bill, including Muhammad’s legal expenses, with taxpayer money.
I was an elementary school teacher in Camden for a short time. I taught in a school that was 2/3 condemned because two wings of the school were destroyed by fire. All classes occurred in the remaining wing. Because there was a shortage of classrooms, I got an overflow of first and second-graders, all in the same classroom. I didn’t have enough books for them. I had no budget for supplies. I had to dig into my paycheck to decorate the classroom and have enough supplies for 24 children.
How does the school board come up with $4.2 million for a pedophile, but no money for enough supplies for the children in their schools? People in Camden are appalled that a man successfully sued for sexually preying on young girls, is allowed to be the President of the Board of Education there. They are appalled that the Board of Education is protecting him when they did nothing to protect the girls he abused.
At the meeting was a group of very determined activists, led by Vida Neil, who would not allow the meeting to take place as long as Muhammad was there, and was the board president. Neil spent the entire attempt at a meeting, shouting down board members, talking about the abuses the girls have suffered under this man, and calling out people in the seats, supporting Muhammad, who she says were paid by “George.”
Vida and others told me that George Norcross has programs in Camden that look like they’re to benefit ex-cons and impoverished people, but they claim he is paying them to be his “spies,” and that George does this with all the community meetings in Camden. While I don’t know what the specific program is that they are talking about, or even if the accusations are true, one thing that stands out in my mind, and this is after many discussions with people who live and work in Camden, is that nobody trusts George Norcross.
They say he has done immeasurable harm to Camden City, as well as Camden County and the surrounding areas. One man who works in Camden told me he once saw George Norcross outside his office, and that he looked like he wanted to kill someone. He also said “There was nothing behind his eyes! The man is a void, without a soul!” Some of the activists at the scene talked about how George takes most of the money from every grant program meant to turn the economy of Camden, one of the poorest cities in the country, around.
They say that the waterfront in Camden was supposed to be a place where small businesses could set up to create jobs and help out local entrepreneurs, but George Norcross has monopolized that area, shutting out small businesses. Because of George Norcross, and because there is almost always a representative from Donald Norcross’s office at community events, forums, and negotiations, many of the people of Camden City don’t trust Congressman Donald Norcross, George’s brother. They cite him as being there to protect George’s interests, and that they have no representation in the Federal government as a result.
They loathe George, and don’t trust Donald Norcross. Given Donald’s AIPAC-funded joy in arming Israel to rape and massacre innocent Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza and the West Bank, and his touting support for McCarthyite witch hunt measures that equate opposing genocide with antisemitism. Donald Norcross has proven over and over again that he is a void, without a conscience or a soul.
- Robin Brownfield
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