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PATERSON — A 12-year-old student at Paterson’s School 8 was allegedly punched in the face by a teacher on May 1, according to a lawyer representing the child’s family.

The child, who is in the sixth grade, was diagnosed with a concussion from the blow, said the attorney, Abdul Hamdan. School officials seemed more interested in covering up the incident than they were in finding out what happened, Hamdan said.

The lawyer said the educator continued working his regular job after the alleged incident.

“If a teacher can punch a child in the face without consequences, what does it say about our system?” Hamdan asked. “He shouldn’t be interacting with our children.”

Story continues below photo gallery

Hamdan said the educator should be placed on paid leave while the allegations are investigated.

District officials did not immediately respond to a reporter’s questions about the alleged incident.

John McEntee Jr., the president of the Paterson teachers’ union, expressed full support for the educator involved in the incident.

“We fully believe that when all the evidence is produced, the public will see he is completely exonerated of the false allegations made against him,” the union president asserted.

Hamdan said the boy — whose family came to Paterson in June 2024 — had been in a fight with another student, which the teacher broke up. The other boy made a disparaging comment about his client’s mother, Hamdan said. His client then spat at the other student, the lawyer stated.

At that point, the teacher punched the boy, the attorney stated.

Hamdan said the child’s mother went to the school and district headquarters five times in the days after the incident to get answers about what happened. He said that officials told her the incident was “a personnel matter” they could not discuss.

Hamdan said he has requested copies of the security camera recordings of the incident but has not yet received them. He said law enforcement officials are investigating the incident.

In additional to his law practice, Hamdan also does real estate development, including the ongoing construction of a 171-unit apartment building on Pennsylvania Avenue in South Paterson.

Another movie filmed in North Jersey this week, but the production appears to be a mystery.

Patsy's Tavern and Restaurant in Paterson closed May 6 for the filming of a movie, confirmed the owner Jill Barbarulo.

The eatery was only closed for a day and reopened May 7. Filming was done all day at the restaurant.

The owner of Patsy's could not disclose what specific movie filmed at her tavern. She did say, however, that the movie was not the new Netflix film starring Robert De Niro, "Whisper Man," which was filmed in Paterson on May 1.

Jill Barbarulo and her husband stayed at her restaurant all day while the movie was filmed at Patsy's. She met the director and producers but while they filmed she let the team work their magic and didn't speak to the actors between sets.

The filming at the Paterson restaurant adds to the long list of movies that were filmed in New Jersey. Last year was a busy year for movies made in New Jersey. Movies such as "Happy Gilmore 2," "A Complete Unknown," and an unreleased Bruce Springsteen biopic were filmed in New Jersey in 2024. Sydney Sweeny was also spotted filming at Rutt's Hut in Clifton in January

A new pope with American and Peruvian roots means a lot to many people in Paterson, New Jersey.

Pope Leo XIV has dual citizenship, holding nationality in both the United States and Peru, where he served for many years.

In his first address after being elected the new pope on Thursday, Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost greeted the people of Peru and his former diocese in Chiclayo. It was a welcome sight in Paterson's Peru Square.

"Hope is very great for our culture and our community, especially in New York and New Jersey, where we are big," Peruvian-American Ceasar Moreno said.

Moreno said he often visits Paterson's Peruvian enclave, where there's a sense of pride and, he says, hope for humanity with this new pope.

"We need more reunion. We need more people to be unionized and to love each other," he said.

At Peruvian restaurant Mi Barrunto, Miguel Iglesias said he feels proud the pontiff has Peruvian roots and hopes he blesses the community with everything migrants are facing.

"It looks like God wanted an American this time"

At the Diocese of Paterson, Bishop Kevin Sweeney weighed in on this important moment for the Catholic Church.

"To see him come out on the balcony, just a gift for the church and the world," Sweeney said. "We believe that those cardinals were praying to the Holy Spirit. Who does the Holy Spirit want? Who does God want for us? It looks like God wanted an American this time, so thanks be to God."

Sweeney said there's "every indication" Pope Leo XIV's leadership will be similar to that of Pope Francis.

"To hear his words of peace and that we're bridge-builders and saying we have to continue the synodal work of Pope Francis," he said. "If he's similar to Pope Francis, I think it will be a great blessing."

Jenna DeAngelis

Jenna DeAngelis is an Emmy award winning journalist. She joined CBS News New York as a general assignment reporter in March 2018.

3-minute read

PATERSON — Salman Chowdhury, a Harvard University-bound teenager from Paterson, knows that much of his academic success came as a result of his parents’ sacrifice.

“The reason my parents came to this country is because they wanted their children to have great opportunities,” Chowdhury said. “The least I could do is try my best.”

Chowdhury was born in Dubai, and his Bangladeshi family won a visa lottery that allowed his mother, Fathema, to bring him and his older brother, Sadman, to New Jersey in 2009. His father remained overseas for four years working in the family business to make ends meet.

That sacrifice has paid off, as Chowdhury — a senior at Passaic County Technical Institute STEM Academy in Wayne — was accepted to five Ivy League schools.

Story continues below photo gallery.

He recently decided to attend Harvard University in the fall. He is leaning toward getting a degree in applied math, a subject for which he has shown a rare gift at an early age.

In 2019, Chowdhury became one of only 16 students to ace the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments standardized test. What made the feat so historic is that he also got a perfect score on the language test — the first in the school district to do both in the same year, Paterson Press reported.

Chowdhury was fortunate to find teachers at Paterson’s Academy for the Gifted and Talented who recognized his abilities and decided to devise personalized curriculums that challenged him beyond the typical classwork.

“In eighth grade, I finished the geometry curriculum and moved on to algebra, pre-calculus, and bits of calculus,” Chowdhury said. “That carried over to high school — I became the only freshman in my year to be placed into honors algebra 2 and trig.”

Chowdhury’s enrollment in Passaic County Technical Institute STEM Academy helped him flourish at the top-ranked school in the county. There he found himself surrounded with the region’s other gifted students. Together, Chowdhury, and six other classmates created the school’s first-ever algebra 3 class.

Chowdhury also joined the school’s first-ever robotics team — for his capstone project he designed a lunar rover that could withstand the moon's harsh environment.

High achievement at academy

It’s plausible that Chowdhury would have achieved similar success had he never set foot in PCTI STEM Academy. Still, he gained entrance into this selective high school — the acceptance rate is 30% — just as PCTI STEM Academy Principal Joaquim Johnson believes it finally found its stride.

“I knew that of all the classes that we had, that this one would be the most successful,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who has been with the school from the beginning in 2018, watched the PCTI STEM Academy grow from an inaugural class of 253 to surpass 1,000 students now. Johnson credits the academy’s success to the resources at his disposal, with Passaic County Technical Institute’s total operating budget this year at $137 million.

But the principal said resources alone cannot explain the culture of high achievement at PCTI STEM Academy. “If you’re not doing all that you can do, you're not going to feel like you belong,” Johnson said.

Erudite work, humble student

Nathaniel Sanchez, an English teacher at PCTI STEM Academy, made a point to read the title of Chowdhury’s 20-page Advanced Placement research paper, in hopes of conveying the erudite work his student has been working on lately.

“The exact title is, ‘How Color and Infill Density Affect the Ultimate Tensile Strength of PLA Filament,’” Sanchez said with a hearty laugh. “He was incorporating his interest in 3-D printing, but what stands out about him, what I wrote in his college recommendation, is that he is the most humble student.”

Chowdhury’s down-to-earth nature comes from his gratitude to his parents. His mother, Fathema, said the family struggled to find work as immigrants in a new land. His mother took jobs at a local dollar store and a public school cafeteria because these types of jobs allowed her to be with her children when they returned home from school.

When Chowdhury’s father, Mohammed, finally joined his family in the United State in 2013, he initially worked jobs at Subway and 7-Eleven. Today, his parents both work as substitute teachers in the Paterson school district.

“A lot of my success is because of the way they raised me,” Chowdhury said.

The PCTI STEM Academy has had Ivy acceptances, but never has a student had so many in one year as Chowdhury has.

However, Johnson said he no longer believes that the number of students gaining Ivy League acceptances is the best measurement of a school’s success. Instead, he believes that siblings of high achievers enrolling in his school and following their footsteps is the real benchmark.

Johnson has already begun recruiting Chowdhury’s 12-year-old sister, Janna.

“I’ll be expecting her,” he said. “If she doesn’t apply, I’ll be giving his family a call.”