'Suspicious Odor' Evacuation, ‘Religiously Biased' Graffiti at FLHS

A “suspicious odor” forced evacuation of about 1,000 students from Thursday morning, Fort Lee's Acting Superintendent of Schools said.

School officials contacted the Fort Lee Fire Department—unsure whether the smell, which was detected at about 11 a.m., was caused by smoke or a gas—and evacuated the school as a precaution, Steven Engravalle confirmed Thursday evening.

"They couldn't find anything in the building, and they think it might have been coming out of the auto shop while the class was working," high school principal Pricilla Church told The Fort Lee Suburbanite shortly after the incident occurred, adding that students were permitted to re-enter the school within about 10 minutes after firefighters checked boilers and heaters.

“There were fumes coming out of the auto shop as the auto shop teacher started one of the vehicles that they work on, and I guess they hadn’t started in a while, and the fumes somehow wafted into the hallway,” Engravalle told Patch.

He also said an old exhaust system in the shop and a potentially faulty tail pipe venting system may have been to blame.

“I suspect that’s what the problem was,” Engravalle said. “One, because of the tail pipe, and then, because [the teacher] left the back door open—the garage door—to vent it outside. When you open the classroom door, it would create a vacuum and suck those fumes inside the school.”

Engravalle said administrators in the building reacted appropriately by pulling the fire alarm, thus “erring on the side of caution,” when they detected a smell they couldn’t identify.

“It was all over in minutes,” he said.

Nobody was injured, according to Engravalle, “thanks to the swift action of our administration.”

“Any crisis that may have happened was certainly averted through their swift action and the expert response of our emergency responders,” he said. “Fire officials responded promptly, as they always do, and professionally searched the building, gave their explanation as they discovered it to be based upon their experience the exhaust fumes from the vehicle.”

He added, “We will be making certain that we up our safety procedures both in the classroom and in the building, making sure all of our systems are working so that that never happens again and our students and staff are always protected.”

Student Finds ‘Religiously Biased Symbol’ on Locker

Also Thursday morning, a Fort Lee High School student arrived at school to find graffiti—described by Engravalle as a “religiously biased symbol”—on his locker.

In a letter to parents, guardians and Fort Lee community members posted on the school district’s website, Engravalle, who declined to provide further details Thursday evening, wrote that Fort Lee police believe the vandalism occurred sometime between 3:02 p.m. Wednesday and 7:45 a.m. Thursday and do not suspect the student was “specifically targeted.”

Engravalle goes on to say in the letter that Fort Lee Police have no suspects at this time but “have no reason to believe that a Fort Lee High School student or Fort Lee community member committed the act.”

“[Fort Lee Police] Chief Ripoli noted that [Wednesday] night there was an event in the building attended by representatives from many local municipalities, and the graffiti was not found until early this morning,” Engravalle says in the letter. “[Ripoli] also reported that the incident had been referred to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation and review.”

According to Engravalle, school staff removed the graffiti with police approval after police officials took photos and “documented the location.”

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the at 201-592-3700.