CYA or “Cover Your Administration”? Newark’s Board of Education and the “Nuttin’ Butt Azz” Basketball Tournament

Graphic created by Zoe Van Gelder. Yellow and green are West Side High School's colors. (Zoe Van Gelder for Public Square Amplified)

This was published as part of the 2024 community journalism class sponsored by New Jersey Civic Information Consortium.

Newark NJ –  It’s June 14th, the jump ball is thrown and Big Fendi, former Nicki Minaj manager and now author, takes it running. A promotional video for a community basketball tournament dubbed “Nuttin’ Butt Azz’” is circulated on Facebook. Big Fendi and Shaleena Washington, a player in a similar sports-entertainment organization known as “Buns ‘n’ Basketball,” announce that a basketball tournament will be held on July 21st. 

Within this promotional video, Sexy Redd’s music plays in the background, the costume design consists of thongs and sports bras, twerking comprises most of the choreography, the theme is outright sexual – and the setting is West Side High School’s gymnasium. 

In the video, Big Fendi says, “This will be like a real NBA tournament, it’s really the NBA ‘Nuttin’ Butt Azz’ tournament. You know, I wanted to clean it up, there’s gonna be real nice women, we’re not doing no Ugly Duglies.” For this tournament, tickets ranged from $50 to $500.

On Thursday, August 22nd, the Newark Board of Education was supposed to meet publicly to discuss the findings of their investigation into how the community basketball tournament dubbed “Nuttin’ But Azz” was permitted to happen within the gym of West Side High School, earlier in June. Their investigation results came back October 1st, late, and without much, if any, tangible result. 

The Newark Board of Ed Superintendent, Roger León, according to TAPinto Newark, revealed the status of the investigation within an Education Committee meeting, as opposed to the Regular Board Meeting for which it was originally intended. 

No recording of the Education Oversight Committee meeting on October 1st is online. In contrast, every regular meeting by the Newark Board of Education is uploaded on Facebook, and is easily accessible to the public. Despite attempts to speak with Superintendent León, and his office, to address whether the public will receive the details of the investigation, Public Square Amplified reporters have not received any comments. 

The story of how a school becomes a setting for such a scandalous video, and almost a setting for the actual event it promoted, is, more fittingly, a story about how a community space is violated. 

Who is (and is not) taking accountability

Rather than apologizing directly on his own account (via @bigfendiitv on Instagram), Big Fendi, the main face of the video, appears in an apology video that was not posted to his account. – but rather by four other accounts on Instagram.

West Side High’s Principal Akbar Cook, the CEO of New Direction Shadee Dukes, and President of New Direction Khalil Tutt, along with New Direction’s business Instagram account, collaboratively, posted Fendi’s apology on June 17th.

“Most importantly I want to apologize to Principal Cook, and Councilman Dupré Kelly … the content of this video you knew nothing about. We were doing this event and, you know, things went a little left and out of control and I take full responsibility for that, because you guys had no knowledge of what these girls would be wearing in this celebrity game. Whoever was affected by this video, I want to apologize to the parents, to the students… my deepest apologies, hopefully this helps,” said Fendi in a video, sitting on what appears to be a throne. 

What do the three accounts other than that of Principal Cook have to do with “Nuttin’ Butt Azz?” No one is certain other than the parties involved. Despite attempts to reach out to Shadee Dukes, New Direction’s business number, Councilman Kelly, and Principal Akbar Cook’s office, all have been unresponsive. To outside viewers, there seems to be only fleeting glimpses into the inner workings of the Newark administration, but these tiny digital connections actually paint a bigger picture. 

In a statement given to NJ.com, the Newark Public Schools spokeswoman Nancy Deering placed the blame on Councilman Kelly. Councilman Kelly, in the same article, provided a statement claiming that he only advised a third party, (in his words, “a credible community partner”) on the required steps, and only relayed the availability and costs of the West Side gym. He and his office have also not commented when approached by Public Square Amplified.

New Direction is the only community organization that is explicitly linked to the “Nuttin’ Butt Azz” tournament, based on their participation in posting the apology video.

New Direction is a High Risk Intervention (HRI) organization that was founded in 2022. Founded by Shadee Dukes and Khalil Tutt, who were also a part of the collaborative post, it was created with the goal of providing conflict resolution, mediation, and overall outreach for the community. The formation of New Direction has been Dukes and Tutt’s way of taking their past experiences and transforming them into tools for positive change.

In the apology video, New Direction expressed a need to clear the air and take accountability. The explanation remained that there was a miscommunication that the wrong people took the heat for. 

Screenshot obtained from Facilitron's website after simulating the process of renting West Side High School's gym for the intended date of the event, July 21st. (Ishani Bakshi for Public Square Amplified)

What is standard policy, then? 

According to the established policy, it’s indicated that Principal Akbar Cook and the Newark Board of Education would have had to have knowledge of the event, and would have had to have approved it. Based on their website, the process of renting school spaces has largely made a transition to being a primarily digital process. 

Any third party renting out the facilities would have to provide information such as the exact location of the event within the school, the purpose of the event, names of celebrities (if applicable), and the estimated number of attendees and participants. They would have to provide this information two weeks in advance from their intended date of use. 

Once the event was approved, the applicants would receive a permit and instructions for payment from the Newark Office of Facilities Management to issue a permit, and if denied, they would receive a notification at least two weeks before the event. Regardless, the school principal would have full understanding of the proposed event, members, and themes, according to protocol.

If such protocol was followed at West Side High, Cook would have known about the nature of “Nuttin’ But Azz” and would have had to have approved it for the school. The Office of Facilities Management would have had to have approved it as well. If protocol was followed, this situation may be either a case of negligence, or a case of severe misjudgement.

Is it really accountability?

Although there are multiple parties saying that they are taking accountability for the video and its production, no one has faced any tangible repercussions. 

None of the parties involved have suffered much of any reputational damage for the incident. Since this has happened, Shadee Dukes has been invited to the White House in recognition of his organization, Akbar Cook and Councilman Kelly have carried on business as usual, and the Newark Board of Education has hardly addressed the findings of an investigation of which they have shown the public zero proof has even happened. 

The parties involved have claimed to take accountability, but accountability is not the same as labeling one’s wrongdoings. The individuals involved remain in their positions, and in reality, no accountability has been taken. No one has been explicitly identified as having approved the event and no one has faced any repercussions for the video’s production on school grounds. 

Schools like West Side High School that are funded by working, taxpaying families are community spaces meant to provide not only safety – but support – for students as they cross from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. For the parties involved to enable, allow, and approve such a video within school grounds stands in opposition to the values of not just West Side High School, but all public schools.  

The Newark Board of Education, whose job it is to oversee public schools like West Side, not only have a commitment to those schools, but to the children and families of those children attending the schools. 

Failing to hold those responsible accountable is a failure to protect the children of working families. It is a failure to demonstrate what true accountability and integrity look like. It is a missed opportunity to show rising adults how to hold one another to a standard of doing better, and being better