Fort Lee, NJ -- Current and former students of Fort Lee, NJ High School are under suspicion tonight after revelations that School Staff doctored student grades to help them attend prestigious colleges!
Raymond Bandlow, Fort Lee's new district superintendent, said neither the students nor their parents knew that the changes had been made.
He said he found out about it only six or seven months ago, so he isn't sure how many people were involved in what appears to be a fairly significant conspiracy. Nor did he have any idea how many kids got an added boost.
All he knows is that it's been going on for at least the past six years.
Bandlow guarantees the practice will be "discontinued."
Meanwhile, he says, district officials will notify colleges and universities nationwide -- and, in doing so, apologize to those schools for the massive fraud.
Fort Lee's schools chief says the district's sorry and won't do it again. This begets the question: Why did it happen in the first place?
I'll tell you why: Snobbery.
Fort Lee is one of the richest communities in northeastern New Jersey and it is no secret to those of us who grew up in nearby towns (I grew up in nearby Ridgefield Park) that many families who live in Fort Lee are effete snobs. They think they're better the rest of us and they make no secret of it.
Apparently, the snobs in Fort Lee couldn't deal with the fact that their snobby little rich kids were no better than anyone else, so they chose to hide this fact by committing willful fraud.
The lesson they imparted to their kids is, if you can't get into really good schools the right way, we'll get you in by cheating!
Businesses should agree amongst themselves to NOT HIRE anyone who attended Fort Lee High School between 2003 and 2009. It is perfectly legal to willfully discriminate against people on account of educational fraud.
When hundreds of Fort Lee High School students find themselves unable to get jobs and unable to get into even non-prestigious schools, the "trickle-down effect" will make certain this never happens again.
As for the school staff who perpetrated these frauds? Fire them all.
