People talk; it’s human nature. Through this, rumors spread. Fact and fiction become blurred through the recycling of storytelling. The purpose of this column is to get to the bottom of any floating rumors; help everyone get a clearer view of how the world really works. Welcome to Reality Check.

To begin our journey, let’s start at home base. Was WE sketchy? The Wire met up with sources who were at West Essex during its dark times around 2005-08.

“Physically [West Essex] was in the middle of construction,” biology teacher Ms. Dolce said. She described cinder block walls, exposed ceilings with visible wires and concrete floors. Socially, the school needed some work done as well. “Behavior wise, it wasn’t so great… The police were a pretty consistent presence here,” Ms. Dolce said.

“During an anthrax scare my friend’s backpack got blown up,” Physical education teacher and former student Mr. Logan said. When alumnus Jeff Kayzerman ’08 left his backpack on the sidewalk following hockey practice, the bomb squad was called in to perform a controlled detonation of the bag’s suspicious contents: a calculator. The next day Kayzerman had a better excuse than “my dog ate my homework” as to why he couldn’t hand in his biology homework.

While detailed information could not be confirmed, Ms. Dolce alluded to another former student’s actions prompting a large scale lock down in 2006-07. Mr. Logan remembers a SWAT team visiting the school when he was a junior.

Both Mr. Logan and Ms. Dolce said things started to turn around in 2007 when Assistant Principal Ms. Hoebee arrived. “When Ms. Hoebee got here she did a good job with handling the disciplinary issues with students,” Mr. Logan said.

Ms. Hoebee claims the introduction of immediate consequences established a proper classroom culture within the school. “It was very helpful in establishing that this is a school, not a social place,” she said.

It’s crazy to think our beloved West Essex could have been in such rough shape just a few years ago. Realize we are lucky we only perform fire drills once a month and our biggest construction issue right now is backed up traffic due to mural restoration.