The Record du lieu suivant : Hackensack, New Jersey • 23

I "if rnn nr vU MM BERGENHUDSON TV LISTINGS EDITORIALSOPINION 3 8 10 Mm Iaj THE RECORD FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1993 2B SECTION cliool denies ifs liotbei off damger Says state figures don't add up dent's office show that the 49 violent incidents Wood-Ridge reported to the state break down as follows: one assault with a weapon, 18 threats of assault, and 30 fights. None required police intervention, and officials and students characterize most of them as minor arguments. It Itf-niam i iiikiii liiiim mm iniiii Him am ii 1 1 1 hiii'iBini wiwmiiw wmwm1 By ANNE E. TERGESEN Staff Writer When the state issued report cards last week grading its 2,200 public schools, Wood-Ridge senior Sarah Burghardt felt her high school had been given a very public F. Although the report cards include reams of information, this small, predominantly middle-class town focused in-' tently on one item: a figure indicating that of all the high schools in Bergen, Passaic, and Morris counties, Wood-Ridge had the second-highest number of violent incidents during the 1991-92 school year.

Only Dwight Morrow in Englewood reported more. "Now people are going to be afraid to associate with Wood-Ridge. They're going to report fights," said Superintendent Robert Smith. It's a view that education officials take seriously. "It's not that anyone's hiding things, but people make different judgments as to what should be reported," said James H.

Murphy, the executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, which represents nearly all of the superintendents in the state. For example, Wood-Ridge officials say they faithfully logged everything from threats to pushing and shoving to fullblown brawls. Forms filed with the county superinten- Other administrators say their districts adhere to different standards. Catherine Mozak, the Park Ridge superintendent, said schools in her district report any skirmish requiring a consultation with parents or a suspension. Park Ridge High School was one of six secondary schools in Bergen County and one of eight in the three counties listing no vio- See SCHOOL Page B-4 crash Dad details DWI to think we're a very violent school," said Burghardt, whose math teacher devoted an entire class to scrutinizing the statistics.

Their conclusion: The figures don't add up. And Burghardt's class is not alone in its conviction. Wood-Ridge school officials say that what the statistics reveal is not that Wood-Ridge High is a jungle of aggression and danger, but that other schools do not accurately report the extent of violence by their students. "I'm 100 percent certain that the reason the results showed up the way they did was that there were places that chose not 'I i a I Z3 Matuschka, an artist who Is an advocate for breast cancer patients, speaking at A lesson in listening was not, by any means, an If average class for Professor Leon ard Jeffries. Most everybody the classroom was white.

All of the students were police officers. Jeffries began by explaining the circumstances behind The Speech, one that led to his removal as chairman of the black studies department at New York's City College. (He has been reinstated.) The speech that led to Jeffries being denounced as a racist, antisemitic demagogue, The occasion for this appear ance was a cultural diversity training session Tuesday for veteran police officers at the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy. I was figuring on one of two possible outcomes: a) the session would deteriorate into a heated shouting match, or b) the cops would tolerate Jeffries in quiet disdain and just dismiss whatever he might say. At first, scenario seemed most likely.

The room was silent as Jef fries talked; several of the officers fidgeted and looked bored, like most folks stuck in a mandatory class that they feel is irrelevant. Jeffries spoke for 20 minutes or so with no response from the group. Then he told them that not only had African-Americans been cheated out of learning their history, so had most whites. "A ioke has been played on you. You've been whitewashed.

You don't even know your ethnic history," he said. He looked straight at one Ital ian-American, asked what he knew about his background. Uh-oh. Scenario A started look ing like a contender. "I'm not concerned about that.

I'm concerned about being an Ameri can," he said. I might add that his tone was not exactly warm. A woman in the back piped up. "Why are you all African-Ameri cans?" she asked, her misinformed point being that not all American blacks trace their roots to Africa. And then, "Why not just the human race?" Then Jeffries, a Teaneck resi dent, spoke about being pulled over by the police while he was coming home to New Jersey some 50 times, and how if he's alone he'll head for a gas station or some well-lit place rather than stop along a dark stretch of Route 4.

"You're that afraid of cops?" someone asked. "I pee in my pants," Jeffries said. "So you're calling every white cop a racist. Why don't you just stop that?" 'And you're a teacher and you're passing this on." "How do your teachings make this better?" 1 hey were getting loud now, an gry, irritated, disgusted. It was starting to get tense I have led these sessions myself, and believe me, I know how wild they can get.

They seemed ready to dismiss Jeffries as just another one of those black people who always ready to cry rac ism, unjustifiably hostile toward all police officers based on the overblown examples in the media of the few bad ones. And then, just as quickly, the mood changed. Yes folks, this story has a happy ending. One of the cops asked how Jeffries' teachings apply to police work, what did the controversial professor want cops to get out of this session. And Jeffries answered: "When you see a person like myself, understand that we are a mix of a lot of things, some of them the same as yours.

But sonfe of them very different. When a police officer approaches, I'm not neutral. "What I'm saying is, your understanding has to be meshed with mine so we can come to a mutual understanding. But you can't force your understanding on me." This is what the "racist demagogue" said to the white police officers: "You don't have to be defensive. You just have to listen to my reality." And that's what they did.

i 9 A DANIELLE P. RICHARDSSTAFF PHOTOGRAPHER William Paterson College on Thursday. breast cancer Coming Tuesday, Oct 23, your preview of municipal, county, and state elections. Look for this special section in the Bergen County editions of The Record. 1 MS i- i She molds alternative picture of have a scar," she said.

Matuschka chose not to get implants, but to use her disfigurement as a symbol. In August, her photographic self-portrait, displaying her chest scars, appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine entitled "Beauty Out of Damage," the precedent-setting image was intended to force the issue of breast cancer to the forefront. Now an activist for reform of breast cancer prevention and treatment, she spoke to students and faculty at William Paterson College in Wayne on Thursday afternoon, in an observance of national Breast Cancer Awareness Month. See BREAST CANCER Page B-4 By DiANA ROMS Staff Writer Avant-garde artist and model Matuschka says "the best doctor in the world" told her in 1991 she had breast cancer and recommended a radical mastectomy removal of the breast and three levels of lymph nodes under the arm. She did.

Afterward, she learned that her tumor was half the size her doctor had said it was and that of the 25 lymph nodes removed, none had cancer. When she asked him about his recommendation, he said he made it for cosmetic considerations. "He thought I would do better with a mastectomy and reconstruction than with a lumpectomy because I would Held dying son, trying to save him By MARY JO LAYTCN Staff Writer Moments after their car was hit by a van driven by a man said to be drunk, Joel Erenberg held his dying son in his arms, vainly trying to save him, the father testified tearfully Thursday. A few feet from the crash, the driver allegedly intoxicated at nearly twice the legal limit staggered to a curb. He was wearing a sweatshirt that read "Help! I'm falling and I can't reach my beer," according to testimony.

If convicted of aggravated manslaughter and other charges for which he is on trial in Superior Court in Hackensack, Carlos Cordero, 40, of the Bronx, could be sentenced to 50 years in prison. The five-car accident occurred on March 7, 1992, on the Route 46 bridge over the Hackensack River in Little Ferry. Marc Erenberg, a 13-year-old honors student, was killed in the crash. Also seriously injured were his grandmother, Lillian; his father, Joel; and his stepmother, Leslie Napoli, all of whom delivered emotional testimony Thursday. The 48-year-old Fort Lee father testified that the family had been returning home from dinner when a vehicle struck the car with tremendous force.

"It was like two hand grenades went off in the car it was so violent," said Erenberg, who was seated in the back seat next to his son. "Marc fell over into my arms. His mouth gushed with blood," Erenberg said. "I said, 'Marc, it's Daddy, I love you. An ambulance is going to come and everything will be all right.

"I said, 'Marc, squeeze Daddy's See CRASH Page B-6 Executive clemency for Taro? Florio looks into pardon of pooch By ANNE C0LDEN and JOHN M00NEY Staff Writers In addition to the other legal issues facing New Jersey, a lawyer in Governor Florio's office is looking into an unusual topic: canine clemency. In his first public comments about Ber-' gen County's infamous dog, Florio said Thursday that he has instructed his staff to research his authority on pardoning dogs sentenced to die. Florio has been asked by animal-rights supporters to grant clemency to Tare, the Haworth Akita ordered destroyed under the state's vicious-dog law. The dog, which has been held in the Bergen County Jail K-9 unit since February 1991, has been the subject of widespread attention and pleas for leniency. A Superior Court appeals panel this week upheld a lower court ruling that calls for the animal to be put to death.

The lawyer representing Taro's owners, Ber- See TARO Page B-6 Focus on governor in 38 th District race i State House hopefuls toe party lines The Democratic ticket, led by the Senate candidacy of Garfield Mayor James Krone, has stayed close to its party's statewide strategy of blasting Republicans on issues such as gun control and homestead rebates. Florio's visit and kind words at a campaign rally this fall was a highlight of the Democrats' campaign. Krone, 49, denied he'd ever be a rubber stamp for the governor, but he readily said Florio "has done a good job." "The governor's $2.8 billion tax increase in 1990 was needed," he said. "We haven't had one since." Certainly, the race has its own dynamics as well. The two tickets couldn't be more different, with each side closely following traditional party lines.

But to observers in and outside the campaign, the wild card in the race remains Florio. In short, a Florio triumph is seen as almost crucial to the Democrats' chances. By JOHN MQ0NEY Staff Writer In central Bergen County, Governor Florio could very well show up twice on the Nov. 2 ballot. Besides running his own reelection campaign, the governor has become a central figure in the legislative races in the 38th District.

Call them Florio's coattails or his goat tails, but both sides are playing them up. To Republican state ben. Louis Kosco of Paramus and his two colleagues in the Assembly, Florio is the chief "Taxasaurus Rex" a campaign symbol meant to Daint the whole Democratic lot, and espe cially the Democratic candidates in the 38th, as "tax-and-spend liberals." 'With mv ODDonents, we got just a cou ple of rubber stamps for the governor," said Kosco, the 61-year-old owner of a motorcycle dealership who served four terms in the Assembly before his election to the Senate in 1991. If the governor wins by the 15 percentage points he did in 1989, Krone said, "we have a good chance." Few new ideas or initiatives have emerged during the campaign, as the two sides have mostly debated the Republicans' record over the past two years. Kosco and GOP Assembly members Patrick Roma of Palisades Park and Rose Heck of Hasbrouck Heights have said they would not raise income or sales taxes.

They like to point out that they voted See 38TH DISTRICT Page B-6.