PATERSON — Popular city high school Principal Zatiti Moody resigned from his job Wednesday night, saying he was targeted by district officials after he publicly defended an instructional aide about an incident with a student.
After working almost 26 years in the city district, Moody said he will become principal of the College Achieve Public Schools charter high school in Paterson.
Moody took off the entire 2023-24 year, putting in for leave after he was transferred last summer away from Paterson's alternative education high school program for students with behavior problems, which is named after his father. District officials had reassigned Moody to the principal’s office at John F. Kennedy High School, but he never reported for work there.
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Moody said he believes the transfer to Kennedy was punishment for his speaking at a public Board of Education meeting last May in defense of Boswell Anglin, an aide who was fired after a hallway tussle with a student. Months afterward, the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office filed criminal charges against Anglin.
“I don’t feel the district appreciated what I brought to the table,” Moody said.
Moody, who played college football at Pittsburgh in the 1990s, won praise from community leaders for making improvements at Eastside High School when he was principal there about a decade ago. His supporters said Moody understood the difficulties Paterson teens face, while demanding that they behave properly.
But he ran into trouble at Eastside when the school’s basketball teams became embroiled in a recruiting scandal involving players from overseas. After that, Moody was suspended by the district for his role in letting Paterson’s homegrown hip-hop star Fetty Wap film a video at Eastside that featured pole dancers and drug smoking.
The district shifted Moody from Eastside to the alternative education program in 2017.
“There were some folks out to target me, so I just graciously went away,” Moody said Thursday morning.
Paterson Board of Education President Manny Martinez wished Moody well in his new position.
“He did an admirable job,” Martinez said. “He carried his family name with great pride.”
The president of Paterson’s principals’ union, Grace Giglio, said Moody’s departure will be a “great loss.”
“He was a strong member of the community,” Giglio said. “His expertise will be missed.”
Popular Paterson high school principal Moody resigns, says he was targeted by officials - NorthJersey.com
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