By Barbara A. Preston | September 24, 2025
The New Jersey Commissioner of Education filed a decision on September 8 involving a case of bullying by a Montgomery Upper Middle School student.
An eighth grade student, who has a stutter, had told his speech therapist in 2024 that his classmate called him "disabled" and "acoustic," and made fun of his speech.
Montgomery Upper Middle School in Skillman.
The phrase "is he acoustic?" is offensive slang that deliberately mispronounces "autistic" to mock or insult someone, according to the Urban Dictionary. It became a trend on social media, where users made fun of individuals who were perceived as acting "weird," "stupid," or socially different.
KnowYourMeme.com describes the word "acoustic" as an algospeak version of the word "autistic" (in reference to autism spectrum disorder). Algospeak is a self-censorship phenomenon in which users adopt coded expressions to evade automated social media content moderation.
After an investigation, the Montgomery School Board had determined the UMS student did call his classmate "acoustic," and therefore had committed an act of Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB). The student was punished, which included a half-day in-school suspension, loss of school privileges, and a school meeting with his parents.
The accused bully’s parents then filed a complaint with an administrative law judge, questioning whether the school board overreacted. The parents' argue in court documents that, "'acoustic' is just a ‘thing’ kids call people, or just something kids call each other.'"
The Montgomery School Board stated in court documents that "the record is clear that [the accused student] admitted to calling [his classmate] 'acoustic' and that he may have called [him] 'disabled.'"
Court documents refer to the kid who made the abusive comments only by his initials, and his family was not publicly named.
A student witness – in combination with boy's own admission to using the term 'acoustic' – corroborated that the boy used the term 'acoustic.' Because of this, the Administrative Law Judge had ruled that the Montgomery school board’s determination "was supported by the evidence."
The parents suggested during the proceedings that it was relevant that their son said “that’s so acoustic,” presumably as opposed to something like “you’re so acoustic,” according to state documents.
The NJ Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmer found that "this is a distinction without a difference."
It was reasonable for [the middle schooler] ... to feel insulted or demeaned by the comment," the commission stated in court documents." The state Commissioner of Education ruled that Montgomery Township school district officials handled the case correctly
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"The Commissioner is not persuaded by the petitioner’s [parents'] allegation that inconsistencies in the record about when and where the HIB took place undermine the [school] board’s findings.
"The record adequately supports the [school] board’s conclusion that [student 1] said to [student 2], while they were walking to the bus, that [student 2] is 'disabled and acoustic.' While [the parent] denies that this conversation ... occurred, it was not arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable for the [Administrative Law Judge] to credit [a student witness's] statement and to determine that it did occur.
"As such, this statement, too, is sufficient to support the [School] Board’s conclusion. Furthermore, the record supports a conclusion that [student 1] made similar comments on a third occasion, during the robotics competition. The fact that there were three separate incidents in which [student 1] used the terms “acoustic” and/or “disabled” supports the Board’s conclusion that [student 1] did make such comments and that they constituted HIB.
The Commissioner noted that bullying and harassment can occur off school grounds, in cases in which a school employee is made aware of such actions. (N.J.S.A. 18A:37-15.3). The Montgomery schoool board’s HIB policy defines HIB to include actions that take place off school grounds in accordance with this provision.
"As such," the commission said, "[student 1’s] comments during the robotics competition, whether it was school-sponsored or not, appear to fall within the ambit of the [school] board’s policy, along with the confrontation in class and the comments made while ... walking to the bus."
The Montgomery School Board president had no immediate reply when The Montgomery News reached out for a comment regarding this article.
* The NJ Education Commissioner's decision may be appealed to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:6- 9.1. Under N.J.Ct.R. 2:4-1(b), a notice of appeal must be filed with the Appellate Division within 45 days from the date of mailing of this decision.
