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BACK IN THE DAY - 06/22/2008
School's Out!
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends around the end of school over the years.
1998 – Senior class drinking champions
It was a huge deal when several members of the Butler High School senior class were caught drinking on a school-sponsored cruise. It was the top story on our front page.
The offenders were told that they could not graduate with the rest of their class. But an 11th hour compromise allowed them to participate when it was revealed that school officials didn’t provide the best supervision, and that the event was so boring that there was little else to do on the boat but drink.
Supposedly the chaperones were oblivious to what was going on, even when the names of several Butler High School students were announced as drinking contest winners over the cruise ship’s P.A. system.
Alumni of the school had also dubbed the annual event “The Booze Cruise.”
The kids only got caught when some of the 10 teacher chaperones noticed that several of them abruptly left a dinner onboard the ship that Saturday night.
Then a chaperone noticed orange juice being delivered to some of the students’ rooms, and suspected that someone was making screwdrivers. So every room was searched and liquor was found.
Three students were reportedly passed out and were taken to the ship’s infirmary.
Trip to nowhere
Billed as “a trip to nowhere,” the cruise ship out of Philadelphia was host to 76 out of the 118 BHS seniors. It was reported that the majority of them had been drinking, but that only five were caught red-handed.
The seniors had signed a contract pledging not to drink at the event, or risk losing graduation participation privileges.
About 15 voluntarily confessed and were praised by officials for being honest.
Apparently, only the few who were caught red-handed on the ship were going to be punished, but several of the seniors, in the interest of fairness, opted to admit guilt to the same offense and share the consequences with their peers instead of escaping unpunished.
One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said the school district almost set the kids up for a fall by sending them on a trip where there were six bars, casino gambling and little else to do besides shuffleboard.
Andrew Knapp, school board vice president, said that, in retrospect, the cruise was probably not appropriate for a school trip.
“While I’m upset that students drank, I am proud of the seniors who had the courage to step up and admit it,” said school Superintendent James Smith. “It may look like the students admitting they drank are being punished, while others may be getting off. I told the students that I expected them to give an answer that voiced their convictions.”
The seniors were given the options of admitting to drinking on the cruise, denying participation, or issuing no comment.
At a hastily-called 10:30 p.m. meeting between the school board and administration the night before graduation, a compromise was reached to allow about two dozen guilty seniors to walk at graduation, as long as they completed 16 hours of community service.
At the ceremony, they were only given blank folders when their names were called. They would not get their diplomas until they proved that had completed their service.
1983 – CHARITY BRAWL!
Joseph Kaytes, president of Kaytes Ford, said he intended to file a lawsuit against WCBS-TV Channel 2 anchorman Jim Jensen’s All-Star Softball Team because of a brawl that ensued after a charity softball game held at DeLazier Field in Bloomingdale.
The charity game was held to benefit local senior citizens and the Dial-A-Ride program.
Kaytes said, “A fight ensued when we (the Kaytes Ford team) were beating them. It was a charity game to raise money for the seniors. We were winning 5-0 and they started roughing up the umpires. The ump threw the first basemen and the pitcher out and they refused to leave. In the seventh inning the umpires walked out and left.
“At the onset of the game we agreed to seven innings but when we were beating them 8-0, we agreed to stretch it to nine,” he said.
Kaytes said the two teams agreed to have the home plate umpire be a member of the Jensen All-Star Softball Team and the base umpires be members of the Kaytes team. That’s what was reported back then.
Kaytes said in the ninth inning, a batter called the Kaytes’ catcher a name and then kicked his back.
“Then it was a total mess. Everyone ran out on the field and someone from the Jensen team was swinging a bat,” he said.
“It was supposed to be a fun game for charity. It wasn’t supposed to matter who won. Fortunately, no one got killed. It got out of hand. The police came and escorted them out,” he said.
Jensen was not at the game.
The manager of the team, Hugo Manci, said, “An argument started after the softball game. No blows were exchanged. It was unfortunate. There were two teams playing that wanted to win. I don’t see why anyone would want to sue.”
He added that it was “absolutely not true” that anyone from his team was swinging a bat. He said the only one who had a bat “was the guy who was supposed to be the hitter.”
1978 – Fireman dies in crash
A weird accident killed a firefighter. He was in the woods off Skyline Drive in Ringwood when an out-of-control car suddenly careened into him.
Fireman Robert Jenkins, 41, was reportedly “killed instantly” after he was struck by the car that also injured two other firefighters, one of whom remained in a deep coma days after the crash.
According to the fire chief, who was at the scene at about 11 p.m. on that Friday, the firemen were in the woods about 200 feet away from Skyline Drive at the time of the incident. The firemen had been investigating a small brush fire that had already burned itself out when the car struck them and their firefighting equipment.
A 20-year-old man from the borough was the driver. He was uninjured. A few days into the investigation, he was charged with causing death by automobile, driving drunk, reckless driving and possession of marijuana.
Jenkins had been a fireman for only two years and worked as a truck driver.
1978 – Senior Cut Day
School board members in Wanaque made a federal case out of a senior class tradition.
Lakeland Regional High School Board of Education members shook their heads in disbelief over the assumption that about 100 parents of seniors probably lied about the whereabouts of their children on Senior Cut Day.
Senior Cut Day, held on June 2 that year, was an unauthorized holiday, which seniors at the school declared for themselves. On that day, 230 of them were absent from school. They had been warned that if they participated in Cut Day, they would be booted off a scheduled class trip.
When the big news about Cut Day first broke, school board members indicated that they wouldn’t allow those who participated to go on the class trip, but then most of them changed their minds.
The school board voted 6-2 to allow all the seniors, even the fibbers, to go on the class trip because the majority felt it was unfair to exclude the 40 students, and their parents, who admitted that they had simply taken the day off. It would not have been fair to allow the children of liars to go on the trip while the good, honest children had to stay home, the school board reasoned.
Only Trustees John Jamison and Boots Bailey stuck to their guns.
Board President Jud Colicchio addressed the parents “in language I think you’ll understand.”
He said, “This is a hell of a great board this year, and you’ve stirred up one hell of a mess.”
“I think it’s terrible what you did!” he told the parents.
Colicchio said that as a result of the questionable excuses for students’ absences from parents, there had to be an investigation as to whether the administration, class adviser, and other personnel and senior class president “did a good job.”
A senior’s mother from Ringwood saw a lack of fairness on the part of the administration in dealing with the situation. After seeing student signs advertising “Senior Cut Day,” the administration called seniors to a meeting and warned them that if they took part in Cut Day, they would be punished by detention and also be unable to go on their class trip.
The mother said it was not the responsibility of the school board to dispense punishment. She was annoyed that those who had no phony excuse for being absent were not only suspended, but were also threatened with losing the privilege of going on their class trip and the cancellation of the Honor Society Picnic.
Superintendent Fred Sherer said the picnic had never been approved by the board, and therefore was not canceled. The mother observed that those who “lied” got no punishment.
A dad said it was “totally unfair” to deny the trip to those who admitted they did wrong. He said many of the excuses sent in by other parents were “outright lies... and the kids who told the truth are being punished.”
He said it’s not wrong for a student who has had good attendance to take one day off in four years.
Trustee Pauline Piccinnino said it would be unfair to punish a portion of the class for their truthfulness and it would be a poor lesson to teach the seniors.
Jamison said that the students had taunted the administration with the posters advertising Senior Cut Day, and were forewarned of consequences if they did take the day off. He said the students’ conduct was wrong and that he admired the parents for writing the appropriate response. He asked that the attendance officer and administration try to find those who “lied” and see that they are brought to the school authorities for “proper action.”
Jamison said he could not understand how Senior Cut Day could be justified.
“I don’t think that we should show young people that by coming here en masse with their parents will result in us doing an about-face. They were told (not to cut), and they did it, and should suffer the consequences,” he said.
Colicchio said that if parents wanted the board to do a decent job, they had to cooperate with them in raising the children. He said that the honesty of the 40 who said their children cut classes convinced him that those students should go on the trip.
“If parents want to lie, they’ll have it on their own minds,” he said.
Jamison saw “civil disobedience” as being involved.
He said that if Senior Cut Day happened every year, as some in the audience claimed, something had to be done to prevent it in the future.
“There’s no such thing as ‘Cut Day,’” said Trustee Paul Nagel.
Sherer said that 230 seniors were absent for Senior Cut Day in 1978, and that the year before, 146 didn’t come to school.
Trustee Howard Horsford said the board was charged with setting policy, and that it was the administration’s job to enforce it. Horsford said that graduating seniors should have the capability of knowing right from wrong.
Horsford said he had to “fault the parents” who lied for their children, while expecting the school system to educate and discipline their children. He said he could not take the senior trip away from the minority of 40 who chose to tell the truth.
“Parents have a responsibility, and I’m disappointed,” Horsford said.
“This was poorly handled by the administration,” charged Piccinnino. She said the board did not know of the Honor Society Picnic and those things at school “were boiling” all week.
Sherer said he could not recommend that the 40 who told the truth be banned from the trip. Piccinnino said it would be “unfair and cruel punishment” for those who were truthful.
Jamison said it was the superintendent’s job to find out if the parents’ notes contained legitimate reasons for their students’ absences.
Board Attorney Nate Bernstein said that legally, the school system did not have to accept the excuses of absences sent in by the parents.
“If a parent wants to lie for a child, my responsibility is done!” Colicchio said. “I can’t say a person lied... they’ll sue. It was the class advisers’ fault and not the administration, in my opinion.”
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