Week in Review: Students Protest & Voss, Saudino, Rothman in Town

A group of Fort Lee High School Academy of Performing Arts (APA) students turned up at the Fort Lee Board of Education Monday wearing red duct tape over their mouths to protest recently announced teacher layoffs in the district.

The more than 20 students attended the meeting to defend the APA program in particular, and to appeal to the board to reconsider the elimination of one their teachers’ jobs—specifically that of Claudia Cutler, who teaches in the APA's dance program, and whose job is among those being eliminated. The red tape represented their not having a voice when it comes to decisions they say directly affects them. (read full article)

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Dozens of people—both Fort Lee residents and constituents from other nearby towns—packed the Fort Lee Recreation Center Thursday afternoon, when Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9), who represents Fort Lee in Congress, held his third of four town hall-style “listening sessions” of the week.

Originally scheduled to be a 90-minute event, Rothman stuck around more than an hour beyond the scheduled 3:30 p.m. ending time “to make sure everybody’s questions were answered.”

“I was happy to stay,” Rothman told Patch after the listening session did end and before he headed off to Fair Lawn, where he was scheduled to do it all over again Thursday evening. (read full article)

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State Assemblywoman Joan Voss (D-38) of Fort Lee was the guest speaker at the United Homeowners of Fort Lee meeting Tuesday at the .

Voss’s main topic at the meeting, which was attended by a mix of seniors and younger people, was bullying, but she also touched on the related topics of domestic violence, elder abuse and more.

“People who love people don’t hurt them,” Voss said. “And one of the things that’s happening in our economy is—with the economy the way it is now—we’re seeing more and more domestic violence, so the kids sometimes see this at home. I belong to a group right now that deals with elder abuse, so it’s not just the children or the mothers and fathers, but sometimes the grandmothers and grandfathers who are victims of this. And we even had to pass a law that your pet can be become the victim of domestic violence, because very often when a person is being abused—and abuse doesn’t have to be physical abuse. It can be psychological abuse. It can be emotional abuse. There are all kinds of ways of abusing people—and so, if you say, ‘I’m going to kill your dog’ or ‘I’m going to kill your cat,’ and that’s like your lifeline of love in your life, this is one of the worst things that can possibly happen. And it’s terrible that we have to legislate this type of thing.” (read full article)

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Bergen County sheriff Michael Saudino was a special guest at the United Republican Club of Fort Lee's meeting Tuesday at the VFW hall on Main St. in Fort Lee.

The former Chief of Police in Emerson, Saudino talked about his first five months as Bergen County Sheriff. He said his campaign promise “was really simple.”

“I wasn’t going to be the politician the former sheriff was,” Saudino said, referring to Leo McGuire, whom he defeated in by a margin of nearly 10,000 votes when the Democratic incumbent was seeking a third term. “I wasn’t going to be at ribbon cutting ceremonies. I wasn’t going to be in places where just the cameras were and the media was. I was going to spend time in that office and make some significant changes. I believe I’ve done that already in as short as five months.” (read full article)

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Among those being honored at the Northern New Jersey and Rockland County Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Ninth Annual Dream Gala in Mahwah last week was Ross Fasman, a junior at Fort Lee High School. He was diagnosed with diabetes at age 12. On a recent flight, traveling from a game with his varsity baseball team, he noticed a man on the plane in medical distress. While the flight crew and passengers tried to understand what was happening, Ross quickly realized that the man was going into diabetic shock. He reached for his emergency kit, which is always with him, and saved the man's life. (read full article)

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Many familiar faces were on hand last Saturday morning to celebrate the kids who play on the field and the adults who work off the field to make the Fort Lee National Little League (FLNLL) the traditional success it is. (read full article)

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We’ve all heard that it’s not necessarily a bad idea to open a business during a time of recession (after all, Disney did it), but it’s not often we see people test that theory. In this economy, who’s willing to take the risk?

Brave Fort Lee residents, that’s who.

Alex and Susan Seo recently opened their own Main St. business in the heart of Fort Lee. The shoe store, cleverly named “Sneak Time,” held its grand opening last Friday. (read full article)

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No, this week's "whiz kid" was not Fort Lee Patch sports reporter Mike Radomski, but it very well could have been. Radomski is now the director of media relations and broadcasting for the Evansville Otters, a minor league baseball team in Indiana.

In the first part of a two-part series, we took a look back at some of Radomski's articles on Fort Lee Patch's initial whiz kids, starting with our very first, George Padin, and running through March. This week, we'll review April's and May's whiz kids. (read full "whiz kids in review" article here and Radomski's "where are they now" letter here)

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Our blog post of the week was not an easy choice. There was a lot of good social commentary coming from several bloggers. But for entertainment value, the winner is …

Howard Pearl for his “Pearls of Wisdom” post on “the Streets of Fort Lee.”

“I do not know what God’s grand scheme is yet, but I do believe God has an off-beat sense of humor,” Pearl wrote. “How else could we possibly explain the relocation of every bad driver in New Jersey to Fort Lee?” (read full blog post), and remember: the views expressed by Fort Lee Patch bloggers are not necessarily those of Fort Lee Patch!

The week in review appears every Sunday on Fort Lee Patch.