[Nova Z\St. Mary’s School]
BSN: “The ‘next chapter’ Nova Z is talking about is her one-Black-girl-crusade against the Catholic Church in Massachusetts for expelling her the day before her birthday from St. Mary’s School in Lee, Massachusetts.”
Photo: Nova Z
PHOTO #IamNovaZ: In an epic David vs. Goliath like showdown, America’s youngest Karen victim,10 y/o Nova Z, is spearheading an one woman crusade to force the Catholic Church in Massachusetts to end decades of child abuse and racism at Catholic Schools.
This is something Nova Z experienced both of at St. Mary’s School in Lee, MA, including her recent expulsion the day before her birthday this summer by Fr. Brian McGrath six months after he admitted to the Springfield diocese that he spoke about his genitalia in front of Nova after Mass.
She hopes her concept, a hybrid of social media, boycotts and protests outside of Catholic masses and the homes of Catholic ruling elites will be duplicated elsewhere around the world. “I am acting locally, but thinking globally,” Nova Z said. “As Catholics- as human beings on this planet- we have waited way too long already for the Church to change. It’s time to bring them to their knees and make them change.”
For a child of just 10 years old, not only has Black Star News’ Youth Journalist Nova Z experienced more in life than most kids her age, you could add most adults to that list as well.
What has been Nova’s most exciting adventure in her first decade of life?
“Let’s see…,” Nova tells The Black Star News, “there are so many.” After a long pause, she declares with confidence “It’s a tie. Going on stage with Earth, Wind and Fire at Tanglewood and visiting George Lucas’ office (Lucas Film Ltd.) in Presidio (Park, San Francisco, CA),” Nova said.
What are the runner ups?
How about going on tour with Bob Marley’s Wailers or stealing the show at the Bowery Ballroom from Mongolian Metal God’s The HU’s SOLD OUT show* last November? What about viewing the treasures of King Tut’s tomb in Los Angeles, California at the very last exhibit of them ever?
(*Nova Z and The HU- Bowery Ballroom, NYC- 11/17/19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_K2FyR9CY8)
“Those were cool too,” Nova said. “But my next chapter I think will eclipse all that.”
The “next chapter” Nova Z is talking about is her one-Black-girl-crusade against the Catholic Church in Massachusetts for expelling her the day before her birthday from St. Mary’s School in Lee, Massachusetts without one disciplinary problem in over five years and a consistent A-B grade average.
In an email sent in July, SMS white Principal Jennifer L. Masten- wife of white Greylock Federal Credit Union banking executive John S. Masten- wrote to Nova’s father, New York City true-crime author and investigative journalist Toby Rogers: “The reasoning behind this decision is exclusively due to your treatment of our staff.”
The Black Star News’ Investigative Report from 9/10/20 – SCHOOL OF HATE: Without Any Disciplinary Record, Only Black Girl Expelled Day Before Her Birthday- reports Nova’s expulsion from SMS is not as simple as Masten’s attempt to frame the narrative with Rogers as the aggressor. In fact a 3/20/17 Berkshire Family & Probate Court internal report obtained by The Black Star News determined that Masten’s claims of Rogers being “aggressive” and having “anger issues” were, according to BFPC “unfounded” – “not having any basis or foundation in fact.” https: //www.blackstarnews.com/us-politics/us-politics/school-of-hate-only-black-…
“Basically, I was expelled for unforgivable Blackness,” Nova said, “and getting a priest in trouble for talking about his private parts in front of me after Mass.”
Although Nova was initially very upset at her priest Fr. Brian McGrath and Masten for throwing her out of school without justification, she now sees it as an opportunity as her hero Black Panther Angela Davis once said to change “the things” she “can’t accept.”
Nova also cites a recent book by Los Angeles Bishop Robert Barron- Letter to a Suffering Church (World On Fire Press, 2019) where the Bishop Barron implores Catholics “to stay and fight- and to do so on behalf of themselves and their families, but especially on behalf of those who have suffered so grievously at the hands of wicked men. “
“What Bishop Barron wants is a Catholic insurrection against Church leadership that allows and enables child abuse in all its forms. It is really up to us, the good Catholics to shut them down until it stops,” Rogers told The Black Star News, “and I hope Nova Z is the spark that sets that all in motion.”
Nova Z wants Catholics in her diocese to cease giving Churches money until she is allowed to go back to SMS and Jen Masten is fired and Fr. Brian is removed from her school and relocated to church without a school.
“Send him to Alaska,” Nova said.
However, Nova Z thinks the conversation about the Catholic Church is not just an internal one. Due to the long anti-Blackness history of the Catholic Church and the origins of the African slave trade- when in 1454 Pope Nicholas V gave Portugal King Alfonso a papal bull with permission to enslave west Africans based solely on because of their dark pigmentation. That papal bull gave the rest of European slave trading countries justification to enslave Africans as well. Thus, those nations establishing themselves in the Americas also began sending ships full of African slaves to the “New World,” all because of the Catholic Church and the papacy of Pope Nicholas V. In fact, you can trace all of America’s racism directly back to that 1454 papal bull. Anti-Blackness and the Catholic Church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2njnV3JM_-g
Nova Z thinks the Catholic Church owes a significant amount of Reparations to Black America and that Black Lives Matter should open a new front in the fight for Black equality. She thinks the Church could start by rerouting the $1.4 billion the U.S. Catholic Church received from the U.S. Treasury Department in COVID-19 relief funds for Black student scholarships, hiring more Black teachers and creating more Catholic Diocese Race Comminsons like the one created in Brooklyn, New York. Nova also wants Black and ethnic studies programs mandatory in all catholic schools, noting she even learned of “Juneteenth” outside of the classroom instead of in.
AP Story on $1.4 Billion : https://apnews.com/dab8261c68c93f24c0bfc1876518b3f6 CURRENT NEWS: Combating Racism in the Catholic Church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEoqs_LdTJE
As both a Black Star News youth-journalist and the youngest Karen victim on record in America, (See SCHOOL OF HATE link above) Nova has been researching how Karens not only lose their jobs but how often their spouses lose their jobs too. Last June in San Francisco The Raymond James firm announced on Twitter that Robert Larkin, spouse “Karen” Lisa Alexander eliminated his position at the large Florida based investment Bank.
https://nypost.com/2020/06/15/husband-of-lisa-alexander-fired-from-wealth-management-firm/
“Raymond James has zero tolerance for racism and discrimination of any kind,” the company said. “An inclusive workplace is fundamental to our culture, one in which people are free to bring their whole selves to their careers, and we expect our associates to conduct themselves appropriately inside and outside the workplace.
Nova Z thinks a boycott of Greylock Federal Credit Union is in order until both Jen Masten and her husband, GFCU executive John S. Masten, have too been given the boot from their jobs and she is allowed to return to school.
“They have to go. That’s it. We need to send a clear message about how this community responds to hate and bigotry,” Nova Z said.
Already, several civil rights organizations have reached out to Nova Z to collaborate with her on strategy, but like any good activist, she is keeping them under wraps until the timing is right.
You can follow this developing story at Nova’s twitter account #IamNovaZ and of course here at The Black Star News.
