The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Wyckoff NJ, the mother of a former eighth grader at Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School in Wyckoff has filed a lawsuit against the district, alleging that her daughter’s privacy was violated when a pornographic image of her was circulated by fellow students. The incident, which occurred in March 2021, has prompted legal action against the school district and several key individuals.
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A mother from Midland Park alleges that her middle school-aged son endured bullying and physical assaults without effective intervention from the school district.
Continue reading Midland Park Mom Sues School System Over Bullying
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Ridgewood NJ, readers accuse Councilperson Siobhan Winograd of being the Village “Karen” .
Continue reading Readers Accuse Councilperson Siobhan Winograd of being the Village “Karen”
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Upper Saddle River NJ, in a lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court last Thursday, claims that during the 2022-2023 school year, the son was subjected to ongoing harassment and bullying.
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Ridgewood NJ, Mayor Kundsen took to task some of her detractors on Wednesday night calling residents Jeanne Johnson comments “offensive, inappropriate and entirely inaccurate” , then went further accusing Ms. Johnson of bullying .
Continue reading Fireworks at Ridgewood Village Council Meeting
photo by Boyd Loving
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Ridgewood NJ, a new Cato national survey finds that self‐censorship is on the rise in the United States. Nearly two-thirds—62%—of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive. The share of Americans who self‐censor has risen several points since 2017 when 58% of Americans agreed with this statement.
Clearly we have seen this in action even on a local level in Ridgewood. Name calling, bullying , “filtering” , silencing , group think , conformity, blind obedience ,right think , Facebook excommunication, boycotts and trying to get people fired has become part of life in Ridgewood . https://theridgewoodblog.net/in-ridgewood-its-free-speech-for-some-but-not-for-others/
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Ridgewood NJ, Another bombshell revealed at a BOE meeting?
During the the Public comment from 2 parents at tonight’s BOE meeting allege that an RHS coach routinely subjected athletes to emotional and mental abuse. Complaints were filed with the BOE and no response has been received to date according to the complainants.
The Board quickly shut down the comments ,claiming they cant speak about personnel issues during open meetings.
Residents claimed the athletes who complained waited for the season to be over before they issued complaints for fear of retaliation and have thus far, been ignored. Dr. Fishbien did not look happy with the allegations going public.
” The adults , parents, are the cause of bullying and everything else that is ailing our children. It is the adults who can’t get enough “screen time;” at stop signs you see them looking at their phones behind the wheel before the lightchanges; adults are ALWAYS on the phone, even when they are walking their dogs. What do you expect from the kids.
65 years ago when I was a kid, you called another kid for example, “fatty fatty two by four couldn’t get through the bathroom door etc. The the fat kid did not commit suicide, did not quit school, went right on living his life. Soon the taunt was forgotten. The taunt,” fatty fatty etc. could not go viral because there was no internet, assholes, so it could be forgotten about by the perpetrators as well as the victims. YOU PARENTS are TO BLAME FOR YOUR CHILDREN’S SUICIDES AND DRUGS AND EVERYTHING ELSE. LOOK IN THE MIRROR. ( Kids take drugs to escape the pain from social media, from the internet, smart phone.) “
Hear, hear Ridgewood parent! We need to stand up to these bullies in the REA and our BOE and claim back our schools. Fishbein, Gorman, and a number of the Trustees need to go. It starts at the top and until we admit our schools are no longer what they once were, we cannot begin to address the multitude of problems.
file photo by Boyd Loving
Cyberbullying, bullying, sexting, beatings. 10 long years of persistent, awful conduct in our schools, documented and covered all over the news, including CBS, and nothing changes. The schools are a mess, and they just try to cover it all up. No wonder the rankings are dropping, with this administration. Who would want their kids to go here?
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Ridgewood NJ, sources tell the Ridgewood blog that in September 2018 a member of the Ridgewood Girls Varsity Tennis Team posted a derogatory unsportsmanlike photo on social media of a Ramapo High School Girls varsity tennis player . Despite complaints from Ramapo School representatives and parents , the Ridgewood High School administration has done nothing and according to sources acted like nothing ever happened.
Continue reading A Culture of Bullying Reported at Ridgewood High School
This is true. In most instances. Take the whole pride flag debacle. Anyone who dared say they didn’t want it hanging on village property was labeled a homophobe. When the mayor tried to consider legal ramifications, Jeff Voigt and Jan Philips went after her with cries of bigotry. It is a conversation ender. Just horrible.
The following column appeared in The Ridgewood News on November 24, 2017.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
It’s been quite a month in our idyllic community. Faced with the fallout from a serious student incident that occurred on district property after school hours, our Village has been challenged to ponder some equally serious questions. How is that Ridgewood children chose to resolve their issues with serious physical violence rather than civil mediation? Why did bystanders feel motivated to record the incident rather than rush to intervene? What part did social media play in fueling the dispute and shaping the community’s reactions, rumors, rants and pointing of fingers?
Importantly, too: With the investigation now completed and behind us, where do we go from here? How can this incident be used as an opportunity to do better?
We are asking all of those questions at the school district level, starting by examining our student policies, as you already have heard us say. I invite you to look at the policies, especially 5512, which covers Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying, and also 5600, our Student Discipline Code of Conduct. The policies, which also detail how often they are revised, may be found on our website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
As important as the policies are, to a large extent examining them is the not-so-difficult part of the task ahead. I say this because policies are generally rules for dealing with the aftermath of incidents or instructions in how to do certain things, and we are equally intent on finding ways to prevent such incidents from occurring in the first place.
Equally important is the need for all of us as individuals, as parents and guardians, mentors and coaches, residents and neighbors, to ask the above questions of ourselves. Such incidents challenge us to examine our own personal policies and behaviors, to look at how we can do better at modeling the behaviors we want our children to adopt as they grow into mature adults and assume the responsibilities as our society’s leaders of tomorrow.
For the most part, I think it’s fair to pat ourselves on the back. We do a terrific job in this community of raising responsible kids, and that is because we really are good people ourselves. We clearly have big hearts that are in the right place, proven by the endless list of ways we teach our children to try to make a difference. The full coin jars for hurricane relief, overflowing shoe collections for the needy, piles of coats and bags of groceries that are regularly collected, successful Pink Outs and Pajama Days for worthy causes, all point to the success of our parents and guardians, our teachers and administrators, in modeling strong values that align with Thanks and Giving, a favorite theme of mine and so many others at this time of year.
So how is it that a community so good at doing Thanks and Giving is facing such difficult questions at the moment? While I do not have that answer, nor the answers to the other challenging questions above, I will suggest that just as Thanks and Giving are important to our health and wellbeing as individuals and members of society, the practice of for-giving is vital, too.
Forgiveness. It takes humbleness and swallowing of pride and can be difficult. But as we know, forgiveness is also a very cathartic act, as well as the foundation for reconciliation, which is why we teach our children to say they are sorry from their earliest days.
At this time of Thanksgiving and the beginning of the magical holiday season when there is always much talk about counting our blessings and peace on earth, I’d like to encourage us all to think about forgiveness, too. It just may help us move forward, to grapple as a community with our issues in an honest and loving way.
I maintain hope that this incident and our reflections together will result in shaping us into even worthier citizens, an even stronger community, and yes, ultimately a better world that lives in peace.
Go Cowboys! And remember the Kelly Creegan Foundation’s annual Coat Drive this Saturday at Graydon parking lot!
As always, please feel free to contact me with your questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Daniel Fishbein, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
file photo by Boyd Loving
Here’s a few questions, presumably germane:
A. If one posseses digitally-stored indecent pictures of an adolescent minor, but that adolescent minor is oneself, is this okay (i.e., does this constitute a legal loophole)?
B. If one **distributes** indecent pictures of an adolescent minor, but that adolescent minor is oneself, is this okay (i.e., does this constitute a legal loophole)?
C. Presuming, solely for the purposes of discussion, that the answer to question B is “yes”, does this additional information change the answer to “no”?: The individuals to whom you distributed the indecent pictures of an adolescent minor are, themselves, minors?
Boys in today’s society were already facing plenty of pits into which to fall. Now they need to contend with this? Talk about instigating absolute chaos.
file photo by Boyd Loving
These questions from a commenter to an earlier post still seem important:
what if a girl texted naked photos of herself to 2 freshman? What if one of the freshmen was bi-racial and the other was small for his age? What if the girl who texted these naked pictures had a boyfriend in 11th grade, that was REALLY mad that someone had pics of his gal? What if the girls boyfriend, a Junior born and bred in Ridgewood, challenged the small freshman to a fight and taunted him via social media. What if the other freshman, who also received the naked pics from this girl, came to his smaller friends defense because of the disparity in size between the two boys? What if the Junior then called him a Nigger. Over and over again, called him a Nigger and challenged him to a fight, on social media with everyone standing by. What if this freshman accepted, who had been called a Nigger on social media over and over again, accepted the challenge to fight and met the Junior? And what if, when the freshman showed up, not only was the Junior there and ready to fight, but 40 of his closest friends armed with their phones video taping? What if the wrestling team wasn’t there? What if there was a fight and the freshman, the “Nigger” punched twice, and the second punch knocked the Junior flat on his back? What if the Juniors friends were cheering and videotaping? What if the Junior’s friends chased the “nigger” off the field instead of calling 911? What if the Junior came home and was unable to share the truth with his family, because he was ashamed and embarrassed? And what if, he embellished the truth to save face? What if an enraged and upset Aunt posted the Juniors embellished story on Facebook? What if we all believed the “story” because the media picked it up and what if there was a modern day lynching of this so called “brutal animal” on social media because we believe anything that’s posted, must be true? What if the Juniors grandfather misspoke at the BOE meeting indicating the “victim” didn’t know the attacker, but yet a simple Facebook search could indicate otherwise? What if we blamed the BOE for not expelling the brutal animal immediately when quite possibly he could be the victim? What if it were your kid?