Yamia Bermudez knows who to blame for the rough treatment she and other students experienced at Newark’s School of Global Studies, which was singled out in an internal school district report for the “anti-Blackness and other deficit beliefs” prevalent in the school.
“I believe the parents are responsible for it all,” Bermudez said. She said she’s spoken at school board meetings about anti-Black, anti-gay and anti-trans slurs by classmates. “I feel like, as a child, technically, it’s not my place to fix stuff that was here before I was here. I should not have to be facing these issues headfirst because my school didn’t want to address issues of racism.”
