Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School was a private, Roman Catholic high school located in West…read moreNew York, New Jersey. The high school was under the tutelage of the Catholic Archiodece of Newark, Bishop David Arias Perez. The purpose of this article is to show a different side that non-students, non-alumni knew of St. Joe's to which was rather unprofessional, dark, uncreative, limited, poor, underpaid, hostile, biased, deceitful and narrow minded.
Over the years, the catholic high school's student population was dwindling for unexplained reasons. For the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 291 students and 19.4 classroom teachers (on an Full Time Employment basis), for a student teacher ratio out of 15.0. On February 27, 2009 it was announced by Msgr Gregory Studerus that the school would close at the end of the 2008-09 period.
St. Joseph of the Palisades was created in 1931. The school had been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools since 1961. Also it was also a member of a so called "National Honor Society", and accredited NJ Interscholastic athletic association. From an alumnae point of view and through reading the school's records, the institute had many changes and developed managerial changes over the years. And Under the guidance of Father Gerald Walsh, the two departments merged to become the co-ed school located at 5400 Broadway Avenue, West New York, New Jersey.
For anyone reading this, it is known by searching through the media that St. Joe's, home of the blue jays, closed on June 2009. The student body numbered 222 as 275 was a claimed financially solvent requisite that was not met. Apparently there was school's budget shortfall of $400,000.00 dollars, and the parish was in debt for $1.5 million, incurred as a result of supporting the school. There was a protest that took place prior to the high school's closing, mainly alumni and related people who gathered a small amount of donations that was not enough to salvage the high school whose claim was of catholic, quality education values.
Before the internet because a popular tool for technical literate and illiterates, there was the word of mouth about the quality of a product that would slowly create a loyal following if the product was commercially worthy.
Saint Joseph Palisades high school was a high school that was known to have a small lineup of achieved professionals such as some who became important state directors of enforcement agencies, government specialists, and Ivy League graduates. But not all of these success stories or experiences were ideal.
However, when compared to other high schools such as: Memorial High School, Union Hill, North Bergen High School, High Tech, this private high school was one of the worst high schools of them all. Poor leadership, disrespectful students, low test scores, and questionable parental support. This was where you send your kids if you want them to go to prison when and if they graduate. The administrative board should have been fired, they didn't even acknowledge parents complaining about the mistreatment some students had with some bullies that had connections and ties to alumni who donated. Some students were rude, disrespectful and get away with mischief if they had some connection to a staff member or a relative, literally.
The school student decline might have been caused by various factors:
1) Reported drug enhancements sold by some faculty mentors. (Gabby Lazzara)
2) Some boys reported sexual acts by religion teacher, Father Frank Rose, and his mysterious departure from the high school in 1999.
3) Msgr Peter Cheplic, a pastor who has taught at Saint Joe's, was known to have drugged and performed sexual acts to some high school male students during the 1980's. and was transferred out with the support of Father Joseph Petrillo (1942-2013)
4) Accreditation auditing hardly ever took place along with the lack of external teacher performance of the course curriculum they taught.
5) During the mid 1990's and to its near end in the late 2000's, students had a negative or a neutral opinion of the school nicknaming unofficially: "Saint h*e's"
6) A reported claim by a number of students that a female teacher by the alias of Ms Labamba had sexual relations with a student and eventually became pregnant.
7) The high school gained a reputation of accepting deviant registered students that were kicked out from other high school in order to graduate with a diploma.
8) Its clubs, sport societies, as depicted on its annual yearbooks were not real and were only functional when the annual yearbook photo sessions happened, while throughout the whole year there would be no actual events
9) Alleged rape caused by the class of 2000 that was covered up immediately.
10) Reported orgy at the high school's swimming pool during 1994-1995 year and gym teacher did not take action (Slawson)
