Kid wonders why his town is filled with clowns

It’s crap like this makes us look like idiots to the rest of the world. And they’d be right. You’ll need to read the whole article to see just how goofy it’s all become.

And it all started with a schoolyard spat

It began on a wintry Friday afternoon in December 2003, when a snowstorm led to early dismissal at the Union Township Elementary School in Hunterdon County.

As parents arrived to pick up their children and a line of cars formed along Route 625, local school board member Barri Beck noticed fellow parent Wally Heaps parked in a nonhandicapped spot.

Since Heaps had a permit to park in a handicapped space, Beck asked him if he might move to one, freeing up a regular space for another parent.

His response, which later be came court record, was terse.

“Go harass somebody else. I can park where I want,” he said.

“It was probably none of my business,” Beck said recently. “I just thought it would be nice for him to let another parent park.”

“That,” she said, “is when the hell began.”

That singular incident — and the endless enmity it spawned between Beck and the school board she used to sit on — has plunged this Hunterdon County township of 6,400 people into a series of ethics charges and legal actions that have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Heaps began making a series of formal complaints to school officials. Beck said one complaint was that, as a homeroom mother, she didn’t give Heaps’ son sprinkles during an ice cream social.

“The sprinkles were self- serve,” Beck said. “I was on whip cream duty that day.”



  1. rctaylor says:

    To much free time for many people.

  2. David says:

    Aren’t there some more laws we can pass to fix this?

  3. Improbus says:

    What about the children? Sorry, someone had to say it.

  4. Mr. Fusion says:

    On Friday, we went out to dinner. As I could see the handicap parking from my seat, I noticed a large SUV park and the driver hang a handicap placard from the mirror. The family entered and were seated right beside our table; not one of them had any difficulty moving. As tempting as it was to say something, I didn’t.

    So which is more correct, to park illegally in a handicap spot or park in a regular spot when you have handicap authority.

  5. xrayspex says:

    They should have a jersey whitefishfry fundraiser to pay for the deficit.

  6. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    From somewhere deep inside that 6 page article… ” With its 8.3-acre zoning and $95,000 median household income, ”

    See this is what happens when the rich have idle time…

    Seriously though, things like this would not happen if Congress would repeal the law against bitchslapping.

  7. Terry says:

    #4, Glad you didn’t say anything, you might have looked foolish.

    Not all handicaps are visible. In my post-heart attack, pre-angioplasty period, I couldn’t walk more than 50 feet without wanting to collapse.

    That was a temporary disability; not more than 6 weeks in fact. For some people, such invisible disabilities are permanent.

  8. woktiny says:

    …and people say people aren’t broken…

    See this is what happens when the rich have idle time…
    just a footnote to that: if you live in america and own (watch) a tv, you likely have more wealth and free time than most of the world. just tack that on to Uncle Dave’s remark about how we look to the rest of the world..

    oh, and #4… I have a family member with a breathing problem that warrants handicap parking… can’t walk far, especially in this hot climate.

  9. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #8

    Not that this means anything… But I don’t own a TV.

  10. woktiny says:

    #9 … then its a good thing my remark was not targeted at you …
    (for that matter, I don’t even know if you live in USA)

    I didn’t own a TV until after I got married, now I’m working on talking her out of it.

    TV bugs me.. 900 channels, nothings on… but… that’s another thread.

  11. tallwookie says:

    lol lets attack another non-agressive country and blame it on NJ

  12. Mr. Fusion says:

    #7 & 8,

    I hear what you guys are saying. But that was definitely not the case.

    The entire table was laughing and wooping it up. This is an all you can eat Chinese buffet. Yes, most of the food is fired in fat and I doubt they use poli-unsaturated fats. They made as many, or more, trips as I did and I seem to remember the parents, at least, all eating huge helpings of ice cream. And yes, they were typically ½ again to at least double their natural weight.

    I have a handicap placard, but I seldom use it. I have had several surgeries on my foot since January and have difficulty walking. This family did not have a handicap member.

  13. Todd Henkel says:

    #4 – That happens so often…

    #7 & #8 – I understand not all disabilities are visible. I have had several occasions myself where I _could_ have had a permit but choose not too due to determination to push through those barriers.

    Keep in mind, it is aggravating to watch someone pull into the last handicapped parking spot, throw up the mirror tag and jump out of the car like any other person. Then watching them make their way through the mall or Super WalMart without any issue makes no sense. What happens to the person with severe disabilities pulls up and really could use that parking spot?

    I worked in an office for a Fortune 100 company where the number of handicapped tags grew so large that 1/3 of the parking lot ended up being designated “handicapped”. Several people admitted they just liked parking closer and since everyone else was doing it…

    So I am a BIT biased…

  14. Usha says:

    This person seems like a bully . It’s possible that the handicapped person has an artificial limb which can’t been seen to the general public.


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