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Bill Perkins Drops the N-Word in Attack on Upper West Side Charter School

By Leslie Albrecht | October 21, 2010 5:41pm | Updated on October 22, 2010 7:11am
State Senator Bill Perkins speaking at a Tuesday rally against Harlem Success Academy's plan to expand into the Upper West Side.
State Senator Bill Perkins speaking at a Tuesday rally against Harlem Success Academy's plan to expand into the Upper West Side.
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DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

By Leslie Albrecht

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER WEST SIDE — A state senator's use of the n-word is adding fire to an already heated debate about Harlem Success Academy's plans to open an Upper West Side charter school.

State Sen. Bill Perkins said at a Tuesday rally protesting Harlem Success Academy's expansion into the Upper West Side that the school and city officials were trying to "n--gerize" students and parents at P.S. 145, the Upper West Side school where Harlem Success Academy wants to open next fall.

"They are trying to, now children cover your ears, but the truth is they are trying to n--gerize you!" Perkins said, according to one witness.

Perkins said Wednesday he used the word because he feels neighborhood parents and students are being pushed aside and marginalized to make way for Harlem Success Academy's "surprise attack" on the Upper West Side.

But Loren Christian, a mom who lives near the proposed school, posted a comment on DNAinfo calling Perkins's choice of words "degrading" and "harmful."

"I was appalled that such rhetoric came out of the mouth of one of my elected officials," Christian wrote. "He has lost my family's vote. I was disgusted by his choice of words."

Harlem Success Academy wants to open a first grade and kindergarten inside P.S. 145 next fall, but local parents worry that crowded District 3 can't handle any more students.  Harlem Success Academy says the new school would provide more public school options for a district that desperately needs them.

Perkins said he didn't mean to offend anyone, and apologized to anyone who didn't like his language.

"I just wanted to underscore how denigrating it is for this type of action to be taken, and how it humiliates a community when they're treated that way," said Perkins, a longtime foe of charter schools.

Perkins said Harlem Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz, a former city councilwoman, gets free rein from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to move schools into any neighborhood she wants, regardless of the wishes of locals.

"We're supposed to be empowering parents and making them feel good, but in these circumstances parents feel powerless, like they're pawns in somebody else's design," Perkins said. "You can see the pain and humiliation and anger that people feel."

Opponents of Harlem Success Academy's plan to move into P.S. 145 on West 105th Street and Amsterdam Avenue say District 3 schools are already too crowded and can't handle the new students the charter school would attract.

Harlem Success Academy would take in students from outside the district, but give preference to applicants from the neighborhood, a spokeswoman said. The charter school says there's plenty of room at P.S. 145 because the school is at 59 percent capacity.

The two schools would share the building, but P.S. 145 parents fear the charter school would drain resources from the school's existing students. They say Harlem Success Academy has a track record of being a "bad neighbor" to schools with which it shares buildings.

Teachers from P.S. 241 said at Tuesday's rally that their school had lost an art studio and computer lab since Harlem Success Academy opened in their building in September 2009.

Perkins comment is in keeping with the heated nature of the issue.

At a District 3 public meeting Wednesday night, a Harlem Success Academy employee was issued a police summons after she refused to leave the meeting, which she was videotaping.

City Councilwoman Gale Brewer said at Tuesday's rally against Harlem Success Academy that she would "strangle" any parents that pull their children out of P.S. 75 and move them into a charter school, the New York Post reported.

The state charter review commission was slated to vote on Harlem Success Academy's proposal to open a school in District 3 on Wednesday, but the meeting was postponed. A new date for the vote hasn't been announced yet.

Though the proposal hasn't been approved, Harlem Success Academy has a website and bus stop ads promoting its new Upper West Side school.