A champion for young people
Teaneck is like a quilted blanket, according to Scott Pleasants. The town is unique, everyone in it looks different, yet it’s all stitched and tied together.
This is what led Pleasants to move to town in 1997 with his wife, Yolanda, to raise their family of four. And it’s Teaneck’s diverse, idiosyncratic community that drives him to fight for its youth today.
When Pleasants kids were entering middle school in the early 2000s, he noticed that something was off. His children weren’t being awarded appropriately for their academic achievement, he said. Back then, good grades meant ice cream and a sheet of paper to stick on the fridge. It wasn’t bad, but Pleasants wanted better.