Posted on 05/01/2014 2:41:56 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
More than 60 members of Teaneck High School’s senior class were arrested Thursday morning after a prank that police said involved urinating in the hallways of the high school, smearing Vaseline on doors, flipping desks and littering the school with balloons and other debris.
The students entered the school in the middle of the night and broke chairs and desks, scrawled graffiti and Vaseline on the doors and urinated, Acting Police Chief Robert Carney said at a press conference this morning.
Tariq Zehawi / staff photographer Teaneck High school students are brought to Municipal Court in handcuffs Thursday morning. WCBSTV
Police on the scene making the arrests in this photo made from video. Carney said that of the 62 arrested, 38 are juveniles. All have been charged with criminal mischief and burglary, and the juveniles have been turned over to their parents.
“To go into a school and damage a school, that’s not a prank. That’s criminal mischief,” Carney said.
One adult student said there were at least 100 students involved in the prank; she said she entered the school about 1 a.m. through an unlocked door and was in the building for about an hour before police arrived. She said the students have been planning the prank for about a month. “It was never supposed to get out of hand the way it did,” she said.
The adult students were handcuffed and brought over by van from the police station to the municipal court on the other side of the complex. Their handcuffs were taken off when they appeared before Municipal Court Judge James E. Young Jr.
Young told the students that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office will decide whether to indict them on the burglary and criminal mischief charges or refer the cases back to municipal court where less serious charges are considered. They were all released.
“They are all good kids,” one mother said as she left the courtroom. “My kid’s going to an Ivy League school,” a father added.
None of the parents would identify themselves, and they made repeated complaints about the overwhelming presence of television crews, reporters and photographers.
“I am just angry right now,” said another woman, who sat in the spectator session of the courtroom. “These students have rights. They should be able to say whether they want to be recorded or not.”
Tristan Anderson, 17, a junior at the school who knows many of the arrested students, said the students made a mistake. “This does not reflect on Teaneck High School,” he said. “These are good kids, passionate about what they do.”
The school district “is considering the consequences it will impose on the students implicated,” Superintendent Barbara Pinsak said in a written statement that she read aloud at the press conference. She said the school has been cleaned up and “teaching continues as we speak.”
Consequences for the students who participated in the prank could be discussed at the Board of Education's meeting on Wednesday, said Gervonn Rice, the board's vice president, who added that the district officials were still gathering information.
"We have great kids, but we feel they made a bad choice and got caught up in the moment," Rice told The Record.
Police, who responded to a burglary alarm at 2:11 a.m., saw “numerous individuals” through the windows and several fleeing from the school when they arrived, Police Sgt. John Garland said.
“It is possible that a few got away but the majority were caught,” Garland said.
The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office searched the school with a K-9 dog that detected a scent behind a classroom door. This led to the discovery of eight students hiding in that classroom, said David Martinez, public information officer for the sheriff’s office.
Students told police they were involved in a senior prank. Some students were scared though others were “laughing and joking among themselves” before they realized the severity of the situation, Garland said.
Acting Chief Carney said that Teaneck High School students do not usually engage in pranks of this magnitude. The last time there was a prank inside the school was “well over ten years ago,” he said.
Maryann Sharpe said her grandson, a ninth grader who she was dropping off at school this morning, knew about the prank before it happened "but he didn't know it would be taken to this level." She said the prank shows a "total disregard" for the school and other students.
Several local agencies responded, including the Bergen County Police Department and police departments from Fort Lee, Palisades Park, Hackensack, Bergenfield, Cresskill, Ridgefield, Ridgefield Park, Bogota, Dumont, Englewood, New Milford, Glen Rock, Paramus, Englewood Cliffs and the Palisades Interstate Parkway.
But I do love how the dialogue has gone from "an aspiring rapper" to “My kid’s going to an Ivy League school”.
Pics at the link. In case you didn’t already know....
As soon as I read the line. “They are all good kids” I didn’t need a description.
It’s called vandalism.
Many are being admitted directly into Ivy League Medical Schools. All without the tiresome necessity of “Pre-Med.” All the TV advertisements have proven their ability to directly enter medical school!
the Senior class before mine in high-school, in one night, managed to get a car onto the roof of the high-school (I believe the car did not have an engine). To this day, I still don’t know how they did it.
Now that’s clever.
This stuff is just destructive stupidity.
exactly... not clever, not witty...
Good grief. Must have been a slow night for the cops.
16 different law enforcement agencies responded.
Both of my parents graduated from this school. My Dad was class of 1941 and my Mom was class of 1942.
not all 62 of the students are black... perhaps most are, i do not know... i only see a handful of students in the different articles that are on the internet...
Really? These little monsters just tore up a school and you're worried about their opt-out recording rights?
Our Senior prank was undertaken by four very intelligent people.
They had a hot classmate style and dress up differently for a day and get freshmen to sign her application to be homecoming queen. She received enough votes to win a spot on the court, but was “absent” that day (well planned).
When some girl didn’t make the court she started asking who the chick was. The Dean smelled something was up and soon found out that the new homecoming queen didn’t exist. The entire campaign was a hoax. The perps didn’t tell anyone who they were until our first reunion.
Nobody hurt, nothing damaged, and a story they can brag about.
If you’re implying they’re all black... I doubt it. There are no shortage of white parents who think their little angels could never do anything wrong. Lets please not put a racial angle where one really doesn’t belong.
Kid cowering in corner, Old guy with belt approaching him:
“BUT GRANPA, you told me you used to tip over the outhouse on Halloween”
“YES I DID!! But I made sure my grandfather wasn’t in it”...
The vaseline on door knobs may be ‘semi funny’ but destroying furniture and taking a whiz in the hallways a bit over the top. Then we have the ‘illegal entry’ problem.
Wonder if they thought of Saran Wrap on the toilets....
SIXTEEN different police departments responded to some stupid kids pissing in the halls.
By comparison:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Jose-Business-Questions-Lack-of-Police-Response-to-Burglary-248290131.html
(Note: San Jose has over 1,000,000 population, the largest city in Northern California, and considers itself the “heart of SillyCon Valley”)
and consider:
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Oakland-burglaries-barely-investigated-4503461.php
(Oakland is far poorer town than San Jose, and has population of only 400,000, but like San Jose Oakland’s police do not really respond very well to burglaries)
SOLUTION: -— put up signs asking all burglars to please piss on the walls in your house when they break in! This way, you’ll not only get police response, you’ll get Sixteen Police Departments all responding at once to help you!
Problem Solved.
When I was a senior, we raised money for a “senior gift” to the school. I guess their gift was destruction and the dumping of body fluids. An unfortunate sign of the times. Sentence them to clean up duty, a lot of clean up duty. “Prank” my arse.
This is a “prank” in the same way as cold-cocking an elderly man is a “game.”
My senior class was 1970 and some of the guys swiped a full sized fiberglass hereford bull from in front of the meat market and put it on the school roof. Not sure how they managed it, and never found out who was responsible.
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