file photo by Boyd Loving
November 09,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, according to North Jersey Media two boys a 14-year-old boy and 16-year-old boy were charged in the Oct. 28 incident. The boys have been charged with assault following a violent school incident in Ridgewood at Stevens Field and Brookside Field.
The Record reported that Police Chief Jacqueline Luthcke announced on Thursday. After an “extensive” investigation police charged with 14-year-old with aggravated assault and simple assault, and the 16-year-old with simple assault. Both teens have a juvenile court date pending in Hackensack.
With the Village still reeling the school district and police have kept relatively quiet on what led up to and what caused the incident . However parent exchanges on Facebook have described what happened Oct. 27 and 28 as either a series of arranged fights or an outright assault, and the culmination of weeks online bullying. Some have questioned the account as being one sided ,and others have postulated far deeper issues than the public has been led to believe .
The Ridgewood school district still has to answer as to who knew and when did they know and why were school anti bullying policies not acted on .
I guess one family’s attempt to spin the facts on social media just didn’t go as they’d hoped it would?
Innocent unless found guilty by the courts.
It’s really not that complicated. Kids were kids.
And evidently a young girl has not heard that sending inappropriate photos of yourself to teenage boys can end up badly.
The one kid who was vilified is hardly the villain he’s proclaimed to be, and the hero is hardly the hero he was touted to be -BY HIS FAMILY MEMBERS!!! And shame shame shame on them for that and for using their long standing Ridgewood connections to try to garner sympathy???? SHAME on them.
Both are wrong. Unfortunately one ended up with a worse injury. That’s terrible. But it happens when children act foolish.
And for the record calling this particular injury a “skull fracture” is a touch of an exaggeration…..
Both need a lesson in how their actions have consequences and both should be (and I hope were) suspended. So should the girl!!!!
Ridgewood High School biggest problem right now is not THIS incident. It’s the rampant out of control obsessiveness of social media and not enough supervision and direction in that building. Period. Where in the hell are our tax dollars going?? No substitute teachers! Instead? Free periods! Open campus, drug sales in the bathrooms, drinking and pot smoking all day everywhere. No repuscussions.
Our damned obscene school budget in this town really out to stop funding silly chrome books which are barely used, half of the problem and totally distracting-and many other foolish initiatives, and get on board with making sure we aren’t raising a group of social media obsessed, desensitized, spoiled mongers.
This situation speaks more about a much bigger problem. This is a fight. Pure and simple.
Dan the man Fishbein no longer has an excuse to delay taking “appropriate” action.
If you don’t want to do the time, don’t do the crime.
5:57 is spot on This is a leadership failure by the super and worthless principal This is our fault for accepting the steady decline of our schools and the high school
The high school needs a strong leader, we went the easy route and picked some local without the right skills who is not very concerned about or able to lead when challenged
For school budget of 100m plus a year we should have the best there is in these positions, not just ones that meet the job posting within 5 miles
That is what we have Really a sad state for the kids
Why isn’t anyone being charged with possession of child pornography?
How come all the new police cruisers have to do windows can someone answer me please
7:11 What Did you say??
Probably used talk to text and meant to write tinted windows.
Translation please 7:11.
&:58 Can’t they see what they “talk to text ” before the post it ?
Back on topic…were both people involved in the fight charged – i.e., the alleged aggressor and the one with the injury?
Lots of good points by 5:57PM…but maybe he/she should run for the BOE spots that always get renewed to Sheila and crew because no one else runs.
7:46 – Keyboard warriors create problems, not solutions.
7:00 am. Yes both boys were charged. We don’t know who the aggressor was, we just know that one boy was strong enough to hospitalize another and the police are calling this a mutual fight, so it seems that both boys made poor choices in agreeing to fight each other. We still don’t know who was bullying who and how the girl and any photos of the girl fits in. There were claims of a racial slurs but that has not been mentioned in the charges.
I think what they’re trying to say is why is why is all the new police Cruisers have tinted windows.
Thats really important to know “Why is all the new police Cruisers have tinted windows” With all the shit going on in town. Petty bullshit.
Hearsay was another frosh boy was being bullied and this frosh came to his defense. Putting the unfortunate injury aside, gotta questioned the propiety of a junior fighting someone barely out of middle school. There seems no legit basis for doing so as any wrong could have been reported through proper channels so poor judgement exercised here by both. These fights should never have happened. Authorities did a thorough investigation resulting in charges technical to law. Frosh gets aggravated charge because he landed punches that injured though outcomes could easily been the reverse .All guilty parties should be penalized but courts and school authorities should also account for the fact that these two young boys are by all accounts good kids without prior histories who made a dumb mistake that they will hopefully learn from. Imo, pragmaticsm should prevail with avoidance of harsh punishments that could hinder their futures. Time for general public to move on from the incident and shift focus to addressing necessary school changes on several fronts.
Thanks for the clarification 11:17. I probably didn’t use the correct language when I said aggressor. I agree that both people made poor choices. It seems to me this is where the school and parents can do a better job – teaching our children that there are resources available to them to resolve problems and there’s no shame in asking for help. Violence is not the answer. I hope the school, parents and students learn from this.
Well why not say it openly that one guy called the other “negro”? Everyone in the school knows this. That call landed the victim the almost deadly punches that resulted in a fractured skull. I bet those who are sensitive to minorities will place the blame equally on both sides.
So much hypocrisy in this town.
I believe that wasn’t the N word they are talking about
Very upsetting incident (among other HS rumors I’m hearing).
Gads. Now an unknown “N” word has caused all this mess?