Glen Rock NJ, on the afternoon of June 22nd, following the last day of school, Glen Rock’s Crossing Guards were honored at a Luncheon courtesy of Victor and Evan Quinn at the Glen Rock Inn.
Adult school crossing guards, first established in Glen Rock during the early 1950’s, play an important role in the lives of our school children. They help them safely cross the street at key locations throughout the most heavily traveled roadways in the Borough.
Ridgewood NJ, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness is assuring the public that school security remains a top priority following last week’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a lone gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at a rural elementary school. “We’ve been proactive in our approach to school safety, taking several measures to help ensure a heightened security posture,” said
Ridgewood NJ, “One Village One Vote”, is not the first to promote “the dangers of taxpayers voting in public schools”. School safety during voting is a false claim made for years by “educators” looking to hide from tax payers what is going on in public education. Recent protests demonstrate the need for more parent involvement in the education process not less. Administrators clearly do not want parents near schools so the lack of learning will not be challenged.
Ridgewood NJ, Governor Phil Murphy has signed legislation sponsored by Senator Anthony Bucco (R-25) to expand the categories of those who are eligible to serve as Class Three officers, a special class of retired-in-good-standing law enforcement officers who provide security at New Jersey’s schools and county colleges.
Parkland Florida , Armed teachers, stronger security and better law enforcement are needed to head off another school shooting like the one in Parkland, according to a panel reviewing the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The state commission investigating the shooting that killed 17 people on Feb. 14 released a draft report Wednesday listing a series of failures by Broward County agencies and recommendations for avoiding a similar tragedy in the future.
The state 407-page report, found that deputies didn’t rush into the school to stop the carnage, and school staff committed numerous security breaches, including leaving doors unlocked and not calling a “Code Red” alarm quickly enough.The panel also voted to include a controversial proposal allowing classroom teachers to carry guns in schools if they go through a selection process that would include background checks and training. Such a change would require the state Legislature’s approval.
Previously President Trump suggested he will consider a proposal to arm school teachers in an attempt to prevent mass shootings. The president said allowing airline pilots to carry and conceal guns had demonstrated the measure could be a success.
Sad fact is many of the ‘speeders’ in the morning are parents taking their kids to school. The peak for speeding is 7:45-7:55. Facing the possibility of being late for GW, they avoid the traffic light by cutting over to N Hillside and then crossing over W Ridgewood to get to S Hillside and the entrance to the West Side Pres. parking lot. They sometimes take the bump on S Hillside so fast I can hear the car scraping on the ground. Every single day this happens and there is never a cop to witness it. Only a matter of time before there is an accident. Drivers need to slow down and walkers need to cross the street with caution and with their cell phones put away.
Ridgewood NJ, in his recent news letter Councilmen Hache said , “Without question, tragic events like the one in Parkland FL, compel us to reevaluate the safety of our children. Many states have even begun to shift education funds to school safety. Councilmen Hache says that he has always been in favor of having a School Resource Officer in our schools. SROs are commissioned law enforcement officers assigned to schools. In addition to responding to incidents on school grounds, they also work closely with faculty and staff to prevent crime, bullying and violence. SROs receive special training and can be a vital component in community building by building trust and opening lines of communication with students. We need SROs in our schools. ”
It is nice to see that at lest the Village Council takes school security seriously and is willing to put forward some concrete steps in stead of organizing “student led ” protests and other feel good measures that have little to no impact on the treats the schools could be faced with.
Hache is the Council liaison to the Board of Education and stated,”I continue to implore the Board to partner with the Village to bring SROs to our schools. The Village has offered to pay for half of the cost but allocate 70% of the SRO’s time to the Board of Education. When school is not in session (30% of the work year), the SRO will be on regular duty for the Village. I hope the Board will accept our generous offer.”
In the meantime, we have police officers rotating through our schools while we are working to install a full-time dedicated SRO.
Ridgewood NJ, “Student-led” marches across New Jersey are part of the national March for Our Lives protests for gun control.
According to the Bergen Record ,the Hackensack march will include students from 18 high schools covering 26 municipalities. New Jersey’s first lady, Tammy Murphy, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, along with other officials and clergy members, will also attend. The groups Ridgewood JOLT, Glen Rock After the March, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Sandy Hook Promise are also supporting the march.
The “Student-led” protests are slick and well produced with the kids appearing to be nothing more than window dressing .
The focus more and more seems to be on a collection of political wannabes and helicopter parent activist pushing gun control and an anti NRA , anti Trump agenda with school safety being a mere afterthought.
The corner is dangerous for one simple reason. When the guard halts traffic flow to let kids cross the east side of Glen, cars headed east on Glen as well as cars trying to turn east from Van Dien onto Glen (many after dropping their kids off) stop.
When the kids are done, cars already on Glen gets priority as they have no stop sign. Meanwhile traffic keeps piling up on Van Dien. This leads to visibly frustrated people who try to desperately look for an opening (between traffic on Glen) to dart in.
The solution to this problem is either to 1) Have stop signs for traffic on Glen as well, at least during school hours, or 2) Have a more mobile and active crossing guard who can direct traffic as well as kids, stopping cars on Glen to allow traffic from Van Dien to blend in periodically.
Once again, it seems like people are confused between ‘nice and caring’ and ‘effective.’ EVERYONE likes someone who is nice and caring. However, a crossing guard needs to be effective before being the former.
The point of having a crossing guard is to help school children cross the road safely, in the midst of traffic flow. But it involves more than just holding up a stop sign and lowering it once kids are through. If traffic keeps building up on Van Dien and people keep getting frustrated, it will not lead to safer outcomes for anyone.
Once again, I do not know who this person is and from all comments, it appears that she is a lovely person. I am sure that is true.
But my comments are simply based on what I have seen driving past that spot a few times. The last time I was there, I was at the head of the line of cars waiting on Glen as kids crossed. There was a lady trying to creep in from Van Dien trying to turn onto Glen east. Once the kids were through, the crossing guard lowered the sign. She could have easily asked me to stop, pointed at a few cars from Van Dien to make their turn, and then asked me to continue on. But she just stood there looking semi-bewildered by the situation.
“Sprinklers should be in our schools, in all of them,” Sweeney said today at James Monroe Elementary School’s temporary location on the Middlesex County College campus. “You can retrofit schools to put sprinklers in them.”
The New Jersey Schools Development Authority hasn’t done a good enough job keeping up with modern technology, Sweeney said. And with Gov. Chris Christie proposing a longer school year, there are a number of upgrades that schools need, including air conditioning on sweltering summer days, Sweeney said.
But the most important thing is safety, Sweeney said, standing in a school corridor as a class of youngsters passed. (Amaral/Star-Ledger)
