Dear Editor:
In a front-page article that recently appeared in your paper, Mr. Fischbach said that a grade could be changed if there was some ” . . . deficiency in the way the teacher implemented the policy.” I presented him with evidence of that deficiency and the blackboard wall of silence (similar to the blue or white walls of police and doctor silence) prevented him from pursuing a proper investigation. Ask Mr. Salter, a Vice Principal who was present.
Then Mr. Fischbach says “As long as it’s backed up with documentation, then there really is no argument.” Does he have a tape recording documenting that adequate verbal instructions were given? That was the central issue here; there was good reason to believe that the teacher fell short in this area. My plea that he interview students fell on perennially deaf ears.
High School is not becoming a penitentiary-it is one.The Padlocks and the checking of whereabouts do not concern me; rather, it is the handcuffing and the way the students walk the halls between classes-if you are not reminded of a penitentiary then perhaps you went to high school during the reign of Fischbach and Tennaro and think it normal. I went to Union Hill at a time when overcrowding first hit North Hudson schools; at no time during my four years was any student handcuffed and taken to jail. I think it was because we respected the teachers and administrators. I went for my bachelors in biology because of a teacher, Mrs. Wagner. I learned to respect authority because of the fair play and caring of the Vice-Principal, Mr. Calabria. The only disciplinary action anyone experienced was 15 minutes after school.
What is this about unfair statements about the schools? Who is the one using the “wide brush” as you say? First, it is school, singular-I have nothing against the grammar schools. Secondly, the facts I have stated are fair-they come directly from the state’s Department of Education and from simple observation. Sit outside the school for a day or two and watch the kids being taken away in handcuffs; watch the parent coming to pick up his suspended or sick child from the clutches of overcrowding; go inside the halls and witness the silence of students-even Alcatraz had the humanity to do away with no talking policies. Thirdly, I have first hand information about one teacher in your system. My only generalization is that bad teachers exist and their union protects them. Never have I made blanket attacks on the pedagogy of other teachers at the High School.
Those “amused” by the protest are not the parents of jailed students. Those “amused” by the protest are not my fellow Hispanics who will one day rise from the ranks of inchoate citizenship and dare to provide North Bergen administrators with more “amusement”. Is Mr. Fischbach amused at the antics of a parent with nowhere to turn? Can he tell us how Trenton laughs?
Angel Jimenez