If anyone was curious as to why a car was parked in front of North Bergen High School for most of last week, complete with signs calling the school a “penitentiary,” here’s the story.
North Bergen resident Angel Jimenez painted the signs, attached them to the roof of his car and parked the car directly across the street from the school, apparently in protest over the Board of Education’s failure to change his son’s last marking period grade.
“Mr. Jimenez came in to talk to us concerning the possibility of a grade change,” Superintendent of Schools Peter Fischbach said. “We had a meeting with the teacher and the department chairperson and we reviewed the teacher’s records. Everything was in accordance to board policy. Everything was very sufficient.”
Fischbach would not reveal which class the grade was given in. He did say that changing grades is generally not an acceptable policy by the Board of Education.
“The only time a grade can be changed is if policy is not followed or there was some deficiency in the way the teacher implemented the policy,” Fischbach said. “Otherwise, the grade is etched in stone. As long as it’s backed up with documentation, then there really is no argument. But Mr. Jimenez firmly believed that his son didn’t get a legitimate chance to earn his grade.”
Added Fischbach, “If we feel that a teacher properly follows the process, then there is no discussion whatsoever over changing grades.”
When Jimenez received word that his son’s grade was indeed final, he then decided to lodge this form of protest, complete with the signs questioning the school’s overcrowding and safety. He believes that the high school will become a “penitentiary and prison” if new security policies, checking students’ whereabouts during the day and putting heavy locks on each door, are implemented as planned.
The car was parked on Kennedy Boulevard, across from the high school, every day for four days, from the beginning of the day until way after the last student departed.
The protest drew the interest of many onlookers and passersby, including two Spanish television news crews. Fischbach said that Jimenez was not breaking any laws in protesting.
“He was following the law and not interfering with the traffic on the Boulevard, or the traffic of students going into and out of the high school,” Fischbach said. “He was exercising his constitutional rights.”
Jimenez aired out his displeasure in a letter to the editor of a local daily newspaper, which appeared on the day that his protest began.
“My vitriolic contempt of certain high school teachers arose out of a confrontation with a teacher who refused to give my son a second chance even though she was wrong,” Jimenez wrote in the letter. “I proved to the superintendent of North Bergen schools that the teacher was wrong, but he said, ‘If I ask her to change the grade, the NJEA [New Jersey Education Association] will sue us.’
The letter continued, “All teachers today act with impunity because of their powerful union. Lawmakers should take away a union’s right to litigate when a parent is filing the complaint. This is the only way of curtailing the union’s inordinate power to inflict harm on our children when they blindly protect even bad members.”
While some people might have been amused by Jimenez’ protest, Fischbach said that it did cause a distraction for a few days.
“I’m bothered that the man is making unfair statements about our schools,” Fischbach said. “He’s painting a wide brush over all of our teachers and that’s just not fair.”
Jimenez did not return phone calls by press time. After four straight days, Jimenez and his car did not appear outside North Bergen High School early Thursday morning.