Boy's school death raises questions, possibility of lawsuit

Snow was falling this morning in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The death of Brendan Jordan, 7, in a New Milford school gymnasium accident probably will result in a lawsuit seeking answers to questions district officials deflected on Thursday.

The Record's Page 1 story and sidebar on how the boy was fatally injured by a falling "108-pound bench" raises a lot of questions the editors failed to answer, but those holes are typical of how the Woodland Park newsroom often bungles breaking news.

A wrongful death lawsuit likely will focus on whether the school district was negligent in properly maintaining "the in-the-wall storage system for ... cafeteria tables," which is shown in a front-page illustration.

But the boy's death raises larger questions on why New Milford and other districts build combination gyms and cafeterias when adding rooms to such schools as Berkley Street Elementary, where the boy was injured.

Did New Milford resort to this economy measure and put children such as Brendan in harm's way after taxpayers rejected a more expensive proposal for a separate gym and cafeteria more than 11 years ago?

There is nothing in The Record's coverage today that even addresses that question.

End home rule

Allowing residents to vote against school projects they fear will raise their taxes is one of the big negatives of home rule.

In fact, a poorly written editorial on A-18 today blasts "New Jersey's home-rule mentality, with its myriad of municipalities with overlapping services [that] drives up the cost of living in this state."

The editorial was listing factors that influenced German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz to announce the move of its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta from Montvale.

But none of the news stories on Mercedes-Benz in the past few weeks even mentioned home rule's ruinous duplication of services, including nearly 70 police chiefs and 70 school superintendents in Bergen County alone.

Anti-union sentiment

In a letter to the editor today, Igor Shpudejko of Mahwah cites "politicians beholden to ... unions and environmentalists [that] have made the business climate in the state unfriendly" (A-18).

Maybe, Shpudejko can move to Atlanta with Mercedes-Benz.

In another letter, Jay Himelstein, who moved to South Carolina from New Jersey, praises anti-union "right-to-work" states in the South.

I say good riddance to Himelstein and Mercedes, because The Record has exaggerated the significance of the automaker's departure with the loss of up to 1,000 jobs -- a fraction of the 22,000 corporate positions in Montvale, Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake.

Mercedes is keeping its regional headquarters in Montvale, and plans to open a training center there. 

And as part of the company's marketing effort, the flow of Mercedes-Benzes to VIPs, auto journalists and bloggers to use free for a weekend or week will continue unabated.

Newsroom massacre

The Record and other media claim the Paris newsroom killings are a blow to freedom of speech and an attempt to silence the press.

But the French journalists who were murdered, allegedly by a pair of Algerian brothers, might have exercised more intelligence and kept an eye on history when choosing targets to lampoon.

The publication called Charlie Hebdo has long drawn threats for its depiction of Islam, the official religion in Algeria, and its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, according to The Record (A-7).

But given the brutal French colonization of Algeria from 1830 to 1962, the journalists should have chosen their targets more carefully.

Hackensack news

A story on the Local front today repeats an error that has appeared in the paper several times, calling Hackensack Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin a "former city attorney" (L-6).

In the first paragraph of the story, Staff Writer Todd South quotes City Councilwoman Rose Greenman as claiming a zoning complaint against her was an act of "retaliation" by the mayor and deputy mayor (L-1).

But in providing background deep on the continuation page, South makes clear Salkin was the original source of the complaint (L-6).

Confusing, to say the least, and readers wonder whether South, encouraged by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes or her deputy, Dan Sforza, simply manufactured the story as an example of "continuing division on the council" -- a slate of reformers that ended decades of Zisa family rule (L-1).

Cramped trattoria

The small space and the lack of a parking lot probably means Trattoria Carpaccio will go the way of other failed restaurants that occupied a former antiques store on the ground floor of a Grand Avenue apartment building in Englewood (BL-1 and BL-12).

But in listing the restaurant's negatives, Staff Writer Elisa Ung complains, "And instead of a lively bar, Carpaccio customers must bring their own wine."

Why is The Record's restaurant critic bemoaning a BYO policy, the only alternative restaurant goers have to exorbitantly high prices for wine and other alcohol at places with liquor licenses?

I guess Ung is in favor of exploiting customers, if it lines the pockets of wealthy restaurant owners who advertise in The Record.

Readers should question where her loyalties lie, and whether it's time for her to move on.