FBLA Competition Results...p. 3 Mariscal sails to Annapolis....p. 3
Vol. XLVI No.3
‘Atmosphere of Fear?’......p. 4 AP Controversy...................p. 6
Fundraising for Gym............p. 9 Coed Hockey Team............p. 11
West Essex High School, 65 West Greenbrook Road, North Caldwell, NJ
February 2007
The calculated risk of leaving backpacks unattended by Matt Cohn ‘08
Students awoke on the morning of January 25th to find snow falling, a rare occurrence so far this winter. That night there was an equally strange event: a bomb scare. Although no one at West Essex is a stranger to bomb scares, this marked the first bomb scare that did not take place during school hours. Around 5:30 PM, after a long hockey practice at South Mountain Arena in West Orange, junior Jeff Kayzerman stepped off the hockey bus, innocently putting his backPhoto courtesy by Wessex Wire pack on the curb, and went to get his hockey bag. Then he left, for- A pile of ashes and soot is all that remains of the suspcious backpack getting his black Jansport on the that had installed fear and panic in all who were present. curb. Because he did not have any Kayzerman, was that your back- thing of it.” homework that night, he did not pack they blew up?” He had no Kayzerman heard that someone realize that he did not have his idea what had happened and was had called the North Caldwell Pobackpack until three hours later, confused. Finally, he got someone lice Department to report a suspiwhen he went back to the high to tell him the story. cious backpack sitting on the curb. school and searched without suc“I saw [Kayzerman] outside, and “After hearing the story, I went cess. he asked me where his backpack down to the police station,” said Kayzerman then noticed a lot of was,” said junior Casey Connelly. Kayzerman. “They gave me the dekids walking out of the gym after a “I then told him what had hap- scription of the bag, and it was girls’ basketball game. Some pened, and he looked a little ner- mine. They told me they had Xfriends jokingly yelled, “Hey, vous, but I didn’t really think any- rayed it and saw some electric cir-
cuitry, like the kind found in a bomb detonator. They could not take the risk and had to blow it up,” he added. Was there an actual bomb in Kayzerman’s backpack? “Actually, it was just my calculator,” he said. “They told me that it is difficult to tell the difference between the circuitry of a calculator and a bomb detonator,” Kayzerman said, who added that he wasn’t “that upset.” “They blew up my backpack; I can’t change it. I just kind of have to accept it and move on.” Midterms can be stressful enough when a student is prepared with all his or her materials. However, Kayzerman was in a worse situation. “Well, everything got destroyed, except my papers,” he said. Even though the binders were destroyed, they protected the papers. All in all, Kayzerman was excited about one thing during this wild night. “I think I had the best excuse in the world for not doing my homework,” noted Kayzerman. “The North Caldwell= Police Department blew up my backpack and not many kids can say that.”
Photo courtesy of Michael Shanker
“It felt pretty good to be
Photo courtesy by Wessex Wire The Bomb Disposal Unit arrived at West Essex on the evening of Thursday, January 26, after a call was made to the North Caldwell Police Department regarding a suspicious parcel.
able to tell my teachers that I didn’t have my homework because my backpack got blown up.” --Jeff Kayzerman”