Hopatcong councilman criticized for Facebook post calling urban students 'crack heads'

HOPATCONG — A borough councilman apologized for referring to students in urban school districts as "crack heads" in a since-deleted Facebook post criticizing Gov. Phil Murphy and the state's school funding formula.

Ryan Smith, who was elected to the Hopatcong Borough Council in November 2018, shared an online petition last week asking officials from the New Jersey Department of Education for a stop or adjustment to state aid cuts. The petition, signed by the Hopatcong Board of Education and Superintendent Joseph Piccirillo, states that the district will lose almost $2 million in state aid for the upcoming school year and more than $8 million over a six-year period.

"Sign this petition to implore our Governor to stop raping our school system to support the urban crack heads," Smith's post read. "$8M of cuts in State Funding is NOT 'We support education.' It is simply forcing our Schools to raise taxes."

Smith later significantly edited his post but left the link to the petition. As of Sunday, however, he had deactivated both his personal Facebook account on which he posted the petition as well as an account he used in his capacity as a councilman.

Smith, in an emailed statement to the New Jersey Herald, said he was "sincerely sorry for the language that I used" in the post. The comments, he said, stemmed from his feelings as an "irate father" of children in the district.

"I am upset that Governor Murphy has defunded our schools to the point that our superintendent has cut our school programs to the bare minimum," Smith said. "Faced with future cuts, he will have no alternative but to shut down the schools. He has asked for help. Our Board of Education has raised taxes on a working class town already stretched to the maximum. What else can he do? Where will our children go to school?"

Hopatcong has been faced with the largest percent decrease in state aid among Sussex County districts for two years in a row. It saw a 34.26% decrease in Gov. Murphy's spending plan proposed in March, the fourth-highest in the state, and a 27.19% drop, the fifth-highest, in the 2021 plan.

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Multiple members of the public and a fellow council member criticized Smith for his comments at Wednesday night's borough council meeting. While they shared his frustration with the impact of the aid cuts on the community, they were upset that the councilman targeted other students in his remarks.

"That is an absolutely disgusting statement, and these kids did nothing wrong," Hopatcong resident Heather Fiore said to Smith. "The crackheads that you refer to — nobody I know is a crackhead. I know a lot of people from those towns and those types of towns. I spent my entire childhood there. So that's disgusting, and you should be asked to step down."

Another Hopatcong resident, Rachel Rodriguez, fought back tears as she spoke about Smith's use of the term "raping."

"I can assure you that language should not be used to display any type of disgust on what's happening with our school funding," she said. "It's a disservice to the cause at hand to deter the attention to someone's choice of words rather than what you're trying to fix. Every student in our state deserves the same opportunity, and that begins with an equal and fair school funding formula."

Councilwoman Jennifer Johnson said that while she is "disappointed and disgusted" with the continued state aid decreases in Hopatcong, she places the blame with New Jersey's funding formula rather than any individuals — especially those Smith referenced in his post.

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"One council member's comments do not in any way represent my thoughts on the subject," Johnson said. "I said it three years ago, and I will say it again: as council members, we are expected to conduct ourselves in a respectable manner in every aspect of our lives, including online."

Smith also apologized at the meeting for his post and specifically addressed Rodriguez in regretting his choice of words. In response, Rodriguez called the councilman "disgusting" and said he "should be ashamed."

Nevertheless, Smith was determined not to let his comments distract from Hopatcong's lack of school funding.

"That governor took $8 million out of our budget and gave it to school systems that have way more programs than we do," he said. "I'm sorry that I used the wrong word, but I am not sorry that I was mad, and I'm not sorry that I'm still mad."

Mayor Mike Francis said he was not aware of Smith's comments until the meeting but understood the concerns shared by residents. He stressed the importance of continuing to reach out to local and state representatives to ensure Hopatcong gets the funding it needs.

"I think that sometimes we do the wrong thing right, and sometimes we do the right thing wrong," Francis said. "I don't get mad, I get focused, but some people get angry — as we all have — and have said things the wrong way in the wrong context ... But I think we all want to see the same results."

Smith first won election to the Hopatcong Borough Council in 2018 and was re-elected in the most recent November election. He said Sunday he has no intention of resigning from his role as councilman.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: NJ councilman criticized for post calling urban students 'crack heads'