Nicholas Murray Butler School No. 23, Elizabeth | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

TL;Dr This school traumatized me.
Bear with me as this is the first time I’ve had a forum to talk about my time here with anyone other than my parents. With that said, let me start by telling you that:
Opening
I used to attend this school myself back from January of 2000- June of 2002. Having been a white immigrant with limited English at the time, this place showed me the side of America that Santa Claus-sippin Coca-Cola commercials never did, and it disappointed me in my expectation of what I imagined America to be like.
In September of 2000 i began my first full school year here in 3rd grade, things were fine until November at which point just about the whole class started to either bully me or be indifferent to me.

Reading other posters’ reports about the obvious bullying and the lack of interest to do anything about it, is what actually reminded me about my time here more than anything else.
4th grade in 2001 was not much better save for 2 black students (boys) befriending me, though never standing up for me, so I guess they were more like associates than actual friends, now that I think about it.

Cons:
My parents and I reported it to the school many times and we often had sit downs with the problematic students and my teachers, The students hurt me on a daily basis verbally and physically. but clearly their parents were never called in or notified of their bulling children’s behavior.
I had my glasses broken, personal belongings stolen, my chair kicked (because my teacher refused to move the girl who bullied me the most to a spot other than right behind me), my schoolbag thrown off my hanger, students stealing from my schoolbag and my jacket including money. Students openly boasting how they would beat me up at lunch break in front of the teachers.
Accused of copying from others just because we picked the same correct answers. I still remember miss. Grillo (I think that was her name, a fairly nice white lady, it was her first year teaching at the time), but she quickly left almost all her humanity, in favor of appeasing the overwhelmingly black and hispanic student body. Not trying to be racist here, but my experiences with hispanic and black students at this place made me distrustful of these people for years after I left.

At lunch i was always having to eat by myself, and on one startling occasion the Lunch Aide, emptied out my desk and dumped everything on the floor as the class cheered her on and she joined in the laughter, because i didn’t say sorry to one of my bullies for tripping him in retaliation to his daily dosage of verbal abuse.
Miss. Grillo after a while would not let me use the electric pencil sharpener, not even when my pencils were dull just so long as there was a tiny sliver of graphite visible.

I’d like to say i was just unlucky, but considering the bullies were all black and i was one of about 10 white students (determined from my rough estimates during lunch times when i would count how many white students were in the cafeteria).. I’m inclined to think the students were just bullying me because i was white, and possibly an easy target as i could not articulate my complaints as my English was very basic at the time.
When my parents moved to a white middle class neighborhood in time for high school (2008) people would talk to me about how Blacks experience Racism daily and how “i’m privileged”, yet no one can seem to comprehend that racism exists wherever there is a minority, and is not simply exclusive to where ever blacks happen to be the minority.

Back then we lived in a sh*thole basement at 653 N. Broad St. and my school might as well have been located in one.
Pros:
The only good thing here was befriending the ESL teacher she was an older, heavy set black lady with short hair; she was very nice and helpful to me. She helped me get in the habit of conversating in English and she helped organize several school trips for me and other ESL students one of which was to the Philly Zoo. She is the only person/thing i miss about this F***-ing embarrassment of a “learning institution”.

Most staff here is racist starting with the principal and counselor. They do nothing but deny the bully issue going on with the ghetto uneducated children that attend. Everyone just covers up everything. They need to get rid of the problematic staff members that do nothing for these poor students attending. Teachers take selfies all day and talk on their cell phone about Summer Jam during class. I moved out of Elizabeth just to get my kids out of this school. Ms. Carolina should not even hold the position she has as principal due to all the nonsense that goes on and shes ok with it. Kids get bullied and they defend the bully. Students needs and requirements with special needs that have IEP and 504 Plans are somehow overlooked. How can you NOT notice things like this?

Besides the fact that they are negligent, racist, and rude the school is also dirty. Huge lice problem and bed bug issue in this school. They never send notice to parents about these thing your children are exposed to.

horrible school..they have bullying problems in front of their faces and they don’t know how to deal with, it seems that they only defend one kind of race!!. Some excellent teachers which deserve a better place to work!!!