You don't expect an educational institution to engage in willful, useless noise pollution, but that's exactly what the Hackensack Middle School has been doing for at least a decade.
Inside a school, it's normal for some sound (bells) to go off to signify the beginning and end of class periods. It's also normal to hear something similar outside when students are there, such as lunch periods.
The Middle School doesn't want to be normal or even be a good neighbor. It has loud electronic bells that go off outside for the beginning and end of EVERY period..........even holidays! The sound is akin to that of a much-higher-pitched Queen Mary foghorn.
Why is this a concern of mine? I live almost two blocks from the school and 7 floors up and I've gotten unnecessarily blasted by them for ages. So has my entire neighborhood.
Have you ever gone to a wake for a departed loved one at the Gentile Funeral Home across the street from the school when classes are in session? I have. And right in the middle of a silent prayer/contemplative moment for the friends and relatives of the deceased, the Middle School foghorn goes off - with no students outside - and ruins everything.
The sound is always unnecessarily loud, but I've noticed it sounds louder up here than it sometimes does at ground level. Perhaps the school's outside loudspeakers are mis-aimed. The school is aware of this and does nothing. It would make much more sense to put their speakers on the school's periphery and aim the sound inward at the people for whom it's intended. The entire neighborhood doesn't need to know when every period begins and ends all day long.
ONE of the many Middle School principals employed during the last decade told me that there is no reason for any electronic sound to emanate from the school when there are no students outside. Unfortunately, that sensible principal is no longer there.
Leaving the bells on during holidays or over holiday periods - including the current Thanksgiving break - has become a more frequent problem. You would think that intelligent people would know enough to turn them off when no classes are in session.
You would be wrong.
I even called the school an hour before they left on Wednesday to ask that they turn them off. On/Off switches are
so tricky.
So, I've be woken up the last two mornings (and countless others) by bells meant for students who were home sleeping. As usual, I documented the audio infractions on video, but the wind today played havoc with the microphone, so - since I have so many other videos of the problem - I picked out a couple of windless recordings from the past that you may find
eye- ear-opening and cell-video'd them off the TV.
This one was from a windless Martin Luther King Day in 2007:
http://xrl.us/MSchMLK2007This one was shot at 12:43
AM(!) during a bells malfunction in 2006. Perhaps this still-of-the-night event might be the equivalent of an interrupted contemplative moment at Gentile's:
http://xrl.us/MSchMidnight2006Anyone else ever hear these things? A TEACHER once told me that she heard them from as far away as the Sears parking lot!
But even when the annoyance is pointed out to them - repeatedly - the Middle School doesn't see/hear the problem and won't lift a finger to fix it by hitting "OFF".
I guess I ask for too much.
Perhaps the YouTube community would enjoy these videos.
BTW - If the video links don't work for you, try the download links below.
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