School Board President, VP Laud Police For Handling of Child ‘Harassment’ Case

Fort Lee Board of Education president Arthur Levine and vice president Linda McCue sent the Fort Lee Chief of Police an email via Patch Monday, thanking the local police for their response to two incidents last week involving Fort Lee school children and a man who allegedly offered them money and a ride in his car.

“Dear Chief Ripoli,” the email began. “Thank you for always quickly responding to our needs. Our Police Department is an integral part of our efforts to keep our schools safe. Whether it is watching over school 4's daily traffic nightmare, overseeing our crossing guards or seeing that an emergency at the High School is attended to, we know we can always count on you and your outstanding department.

To be frank, there would be no way to ensure the safety of our children and our employees without the dedicated assistance you and your department provide. We—along with our other board members—thank you for keeping our schools safe.

Very truly yours,
Arthur Levine
Linda McCue”

The note of thanks and appreciation was in response to the Fort Lee police arrest of 21-year-old Luis Calderon of Fairview in a case in which he allegedly approached two children walking to school Wednesday, offered them $5 and a ride in his car, and then made the same offer to another child the next day in the same location near the intersection of Anderson Ave. and North Ave. In both cases, the children refused the offer, ignored the man, rushed to their school and alerted school officials.

Calderon was charged with two cases of harassment Friday, according to police.

Levine told Patch Monday, “I just wanted to thank our police department for just really acting so quickly and just doing a great job apprehending the suspect so quickly.”

He went on to say it’s not the first time he’s felt that way about the local police when it comes to protecting Fort Lee’s school children.

“People always give you different opinions,” Levine said. “All I know is this: that police department—when it comes to our schools—if we call them, the cavalry’s coming. They’re outstanding for us. All public servants take it on the chin. These guys are great.”

Levine said he didn’t see the full police report, but that he was informed that the kids involved in the incident did the right thing.

“According to what [Fort Lee Superintendent of Schools Raymond Bandlow] told me, these kids just responded properly, which is great,” he said.

The incidents last week came just days after the Fort Lee Board of Education passed a resolution to hire a firm that will conduct a $28,750 security and emergency management audit of all six Fort Lee public schools. But Levine said that’s a separate issue.

“The school audit is is for procedure so we make sure our procedures are effective and that with the resources we have, we’re maximizing the assets that we have,” he said. “Random acts—and again, I am not an expert—can happen anywhere. So no—that’s just people paying attention and having a great police force doing their thing—it has nothing to do with the security audit.”

As for the money involved in conducting the audit, Levine reiterated his previous statement that it’s “money well spent” if it means better protecting the district’s school children.

“They might make suggestions that might cost money, and we’ll look at that really, really hard,” Levine said. “But our main responsibility is the safety of our kids [and] our employees. But safety is a big issue; the police are just tremendous in this town. In terms of our own internal assets, are we using what we have effectively? Can we do things better? I think that we can. We’re making note of the cost, and trust me, I’m mindful of every penny that we spend.”