Major gang problem at two schools
Students from Hoboken Charter School, Demarest implicated

by Timothy J. Carroll
Hudson Reporter staff writer

STORM BREWING ? Police said students with gang contacts have been causing an inordinate amount of problems this year. Most of the issues have stemmed from inside the Demarest building, which houses the district?s alternative high school and the Hoboken Charter School (K-12). The latter school enrolls some Jersey City kids.

There have been 29 gang-related incidents since the start of the school year involving two schools in the Demarest School building, formerly the terrain of Frank Sinatra. Police said last week that they are using instant messages and other evidence to get to the bottom of the escalating situation, but complained that administrators at one of the schools ? Hoboken Charter School ? are not being as helpful as they should.

Last week, police arrested at least four students in two incidents.

The Demarest building on Fourth Street, which has served in the past as a high school and middle school, is currently home to both the Demarest Alternative High School (a school for students who need more individualized education than Hoboken High School) and the Hoboken Charter School, a public K through 12 school founded in the 1990s by parents and educators.

Police say that besides the 29 incidents, another dozen incidents may have been avoided due to police response.

Lt. Ken Ferrante and Sgt. James Marnell, who have been monitoring the situation at the schools, took issue last week with the response of some of the administrators, especially in the Hoboken Charter School?s high school.

?More often than not, we?re not contacted,? Marnell said. He said that unlike HCS High School, Demarest Alternative High School Principal Thomas Fitzgibbons has been proactively involving police to help quell the activity.

Don DePascale, an educational consultant at HCS, said the situation is ?extremely volatile? and that administrators are working with the school?s Board of Directors to find solutions to these gang-related issues.

Charter schools get funding through the Board of Education but are not governed by it. HCS has an autonomous Board of Directors that handle oversight.

?We?re happy to help?

?It?s a free-standing institution,? Superintendent Jack Raslowsky said of HCS last week. ?But if they need assistance, we?d be happy to help. Life in urban America always brings concerns that there are going to be gang issues.?

Police are worried because kindergarteners are in the same building as the high schoolers and there isn?t any secure separation during the school day.

DePascale said the high school is limited to the fourth floor, while the younger children are on the third floor. He also said there are lock-down procedures in the case of an emergency.

?Bullet with your name?

On Monday, April 27, four HCS high-schoolers were arrested after a fight broke out between classes. Police said a window was smashed in the building, two kids were sent to the hospital, and a staff member found a makeshift pair of brass knuckles made with a ball bearing, black electrical tape, and a screw.

HCS High School Principal Ria Grosvenor wouldn?t speak about the subject, but submitted a letter claiming coverage in a local daily newspaper about the fight was ?riddled with inaccuracies.?
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?It took us months to really understand the dynamics of this.? ? Ken Ferrante
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She said the students have been suspended, and the two children who went to the hospital had preexisting conditions like high blood pressure problems and asthma.

In an incident on Tuesday, a girl from the Demarest School was threatened and assaulted on Eighth Street. Three juveniles and one adult were arrested for assault, police reports said. The girl told police that one of the attackers told her, ?There?s a bullet with your name, too.?

Some HCS kids live in Jersey City

?Most of the arrests since September have been Jersey City kids,? Ferrante noted last week.

Police said they have tracked most of the violent activity from these schools to small gang sectors that feed Jersey City gangs.

?It took us months to really understand the dynamics of this,? Ferrante said. Police have intercepted communications ? mostly instant messages sent in school ? to better understand the situation, they said. They credit Alternative High School administrators for assisting them.

One message passed on from the school reads: ?Well mah [expletive] tlkin bout poppin his [expletive].? The student goes on to explain that he has reached ?triple o.g.? status with the gang.

Police said HCS has told them they have the same capability to monitor messages, but have yet to turn over any information.

?The biggest problem [getting information] we have is with the principal at the charter school,? Ferrante said.

He said HCS high school enrolls Jersey City kids, and police said their connection to these gangs has drawn groups of non-student gang members from Jersey City on occasion.

HCS Board member Bill Noonan said school openings ? after they are filled with Hoboken students ? are subject to open enrollment, so kids from Jersey City or other towns can enroll. He said the school can?t turn down an applicant for an open seat. He said this severely limits the selectivity power of the administration.

He said the board is addressing the problems. ?It?s something we take very seriously,? Noonan said.

Other incidents

On Friday, Feb. 27, police were informed by a Demarest school official that two local gang sectors were feuding, and that one sector had called in a group from Jersey City.

After school, police received a call from a manager at the McDonald?s on Washington Street. He said he overheard a group of kids in the establishment talking about starting a large brawl, Ferrante said.

Police units were dispatched and when they arrived, the kids dispersed. As one officer approached a kid, he saw the juvenile reach for his pants as if carrying a weapon, police said.

The officer drew his gun and the kid took off running, police said, but the officer followed him toward Court Street.

The officer apprehended the suspect at Third and Court streets, and then a witness told police that the suspect tossed a weapon behind trash cans at the Black Bear. Police recovered a 25-inch machete with a sharpened blade.

?That had the potential to be a serious incident,? Marnell said.

Principal?s office ransacked

Recently, Fitzgibbons? office was ransacked after school hours, police said. Police said nothing was noticed to be missing, but that they suspected someone was looking for something specific.

Maybe the worst incident, police said, was a brutal beating by the PATH station. HCS kids were returning from a field trip to Manhattan when administrators dismissed them for the day at the PATH station. A fight erupted under the bus terminal and officers responded to break it up.

The next day, police were tipped off that a YouTube video had been posted of the melee.

In the video, a young cameraman said, ?Now you?re going to see us get it on,? police said. Then a girl attacks another student blindsided, and continues to beat her, kick her, and throw her into a chain link fence.

Because of the video and follow-up interviews, police were able to charge the attacker with assault and the videographer with disorderly conduct, Ferrante said.

Police held meetings, seminars

Ferrante and Marnell said meetings have been held with administrators, parents, and students. At one meeting, police said two parents broke out into a fight.

Police also held anti-drug, anti-gang, and anti-bullying seminars at the schools. They?ve even brought in anti-gang units from North Bergen and Jersey City to speak to the students.

Both officers said handling the school issue would be easier if School Resource Officers (SRO) were reinstated.

?We?re not the school bureau; we?re just trying to fill that gap,? Marnell said. Police officers are now posted outside the building for afternoon dismissal. On occasion, police have had to escort students to the PATH or Light Rail stations because they were threatened during the school day.

Acting Police Chief Robert Lisa said the SROs were eliminated in 2007 after a state grant for the program expired. The unit was disbanded, but Lisa said he hopes to bring it back if he can find funding.

Ferrante and Marnell credit the Hoboken Board of Education for working with them, and said incidents at Hoboken High School on Ninth Street have been greatly diminished this year.

Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.