Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving
Charter Bus Driver Assaulted at BF Middle School, Ridgewood
June 25,2013
Boyd A. Loving
11:27 AM
Ridgewood NJ, A charter bus driver from DeCamp Bus Lines was allegedly assaulted on Tuesday morning by the owner of a silver pickup truck being blocked into a parking space by a bus. The incident took place at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School parking lot on North Van Dien Avenue in Ridgewood.
Having no information as to the involvement of weapons at time of dispatch, and because the location was a school with children present, several Ridgewood Police Department officers, including Police Chief John Ward and Captain Jacqueline Luthke, responded immediately to the incident.
Tempers cooled quickly as uniformed and plainclothes police arrived on the scene and no arrests were made. It is reported that the pickup truck driver who was blocked in also claimed he was assaulted.
No injuries were visibly apparent on either individual and no ambulances were called to the scene.
Photo credit: Boyd A. Loving
pick up truck driver is a fool.
Meanwhile at Ridgewood High School members of the Class of 2013, senior students, on the eve of their high school graduation are being held hostage to phantom fines, fees and overly inflated activity fees.
Less than five years ago the yearly activity fee was $75 now that same activity fee is $150. Disregarding district policy requiring collection of fees on a yearly basis or prohibit the student from participating in extracurricular activities, fees are cleverly hidden and withheld until a few weeks prior to graduation. Parents and students are threatened with being barred from participating in graduation, withholding of graduation tickets, withholding of final transcripts to colleges, barred from project graduation activities and more. During the past month anywhere between $150-$600 or more, is being demanded from parents without so much as an invoice.
In addition, 17 and 18 year old students are being asked to fork over cash, before getting tuxedo tickets and graduation tickets, for newly alleged damages to books and school equipment, added fees for art, science lab classes and more.
Shouldn’t the district be required to collect fees and fines on a timely basis? And what recourse does a student have if they are first learning now about a missing library book from four years ago? The student believes he returned the book and four years later should not be held accountable for a failure of the district or school librarian.
This is shameful, and while it has been going on for years, it must end now! District administrators and our BOE should be responsible for timely accounting practices and appropriate implementing of district policy.
Holding kids hostage to hidden fees and fines on the eve of their graduation is a disgrace and speaks poorly of the Ridgewood Public School District.
Why would they think that weapons were involved? Who called in the argument?
#2 – I am the parent of a graduation RHS Senior. Seniors and their parents were sent multiple e-mails (warnings) telling them to check Skyward for outstanding balances and to pay up ASAP. These e-mails were sent over the course of several weeks/months. There was ample notice that seniors would need to settle their balances prior to graduation. The only kids caught today were the kids who, along with their parents, were not paying attention to the multiple e-mails that were sent. I am sorry if you weren’t paying attention but RHS notifies all seniors and their parents multiple times. I owed several years “activities fees” because I chose to “defer” them as a protest but I knew I would have to pay up eventually and I did just that last month.
And, for the record, I think the fees are absurd.
I am not a parent of a district student, but our school system has a budget that rival’s the total tax levy of some towns in Bergen county Why are there any activity fees at all?
It’s protocol to ask if weapons are involved during any altercation. Because like it or not, some people use weapons
Seriously, what’s going on? Is it the heat? The “Super Moon”. It’s not very comforting when kids are finding live ammunition in the street and people are being assaulted over parking issues.
Outstanding Skyward balances seem to be the least of our problems. However I do agree with #4. Notification of balances have been sent via email for weeks.