Publicity stunt outside Tenafly Middle School triggers warning to parents
TENAFLY – School officials urged parents to talk to their children about the perils of interacting with strangers after an incident on Thursday morning in which two men — one of whom was dressed as Moses — showed up outside Tenafly Middle School with a red Lamborghini and handed out pastries to children.
The officials treated the incident as a teachable moment to make children aware that they should not get into cars with people they don’t know or accept food from them.
“We encourage all parents to speak with your children about ‘stranger danger.’” Ann Powell, the Tenafly Middle School principal, wrote in an email alert. “Please stress that students should never speak with strangers, should never get in a stranger's car, and should never accept food from a stranger.”
Jon Singer, an advocate for educational support for special-needs children, acknowledged in a telephone interview that he was one of the two men involved. Singer, the founder of the Reed Academy, a school for special-needs children in Oakland, has been embroiled in a dispute with local school officials over the best program of care and education for his daughter, and how to pay for it.
Singer identified the other man — the one dressed as Moses — as a friend of his, David Zucker. Zucker owns the Lamborghini, Singer said.
As Zucker held a pair of ersatz stone tablets aloft and displayed signs espousing educational rights for special-needs children, Singer sat nearby in his Mustang convertible. He was accompanied by his daughter, Rebecca, 17, who has autism and Phelan-McDermid syndrome, which causes problems with communicating and with fine motor skills.
“Rebecca had a great time,” Singer said later. “All the kids had a great time. I don’t understand why people are upset.”
But school officials were not amused. Powell said several students had their pictures taken in and near the Lamborghini and that some had accepted the Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins that Singer was offering.
“The police were called by building and district administrators and they responded quickly,” Powell wrote.
“Yeah, they asked us to move a little bit down the road, and we did, of course,” Singer said. He said some students used their own cellphones to take pictures of each other.