At Least 20 Long Island School Districts Bring Armed Guards Into Schools

Long Island Morning Edition

At least 20 school districts on Long Island have hired or are planning to add armed guards to their campuses, marking the rise of a controversial effort to heighten security at their schools, a Newsday analysis has found. Dandan Zou reports on Newsday.com that the armed districts range from some of Long Island’s largest, like Smithtown and Half Hollow Hills, with thousands of students, to some of the smallest, such as Montauk and Tuckahoe, with enrollments in the hundreds. Most of these districts are in Suffolk County. Only two are in Nassau: Massapequa and Farmingdale. In total, they serve more than 70,000 students, of Long Island's 420,000 students in 124 school districts. At least 17 districts already have armed guards, and two others, Farmingdale and Rocky Point, are planning to add them. These numbers show a marked increase in Long Island districts using armed guards over the past six years. Many districts began considering them after 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018. “If it was a perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about this, but we do,” said Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, of school boards’ responsibility to decide safety measures. “It's a sad reality but it is the reality.”

Though the popularity of armed guards at Long Island schools has risen, the issue remains highly controversial. Educators, parents and students disagree on whether they are effective in preventing school shootings and if resources would be better spent on other priorities, such as boosting mental health programs.

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A Southampton woman, who apparently stepped on the gas instead of the brake, lost control of her BMW SUV as she pulled into a parking space on Main Street in Southampton Village Saturday afternoon and drove into Herrick Hardware.

Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that the vehicle smashed through a display window, damaging the window frame and the wall, according to Southampton Village Police. Alice Takhtajan, 44, who was the driver of the vehicle, and her two young children, who were in car seats, were taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital as a precautionary measure, police said. Her husband, who was also in the vehicle, was not injured. Main Street was closed in both directions for about a half hour after the accident, which was reported at 1:35 p.m. Saturday. Southampton Village Police Chief Suzanne Hurteau said it was fortunate that nobody was sitting on a bench that was struck by the vehicle and that no pedestrians or shoppers in the store were in the path of the vehicle. Stefan Grigoras, the manager of Herrick, said there was no warning. “I was at the register ringing up a customer when someone literally drove into the store,” he said. “Luckily, nobody was injured.”

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ReWild Long Island is offering internships and community service opportunities in East Hampton for its second summer.

The 2024 Summer Program To Fight Hunger and Climate Change includes volunteer work in organic vegetable harvesting, regenerative food production, sustainable landscaping, pollinator garden design and composting.

The hands-on activities are intended to encourage a sense of connection among teenagers and the ecosystem.

ReWild welcomes high school students and rising freshmen to apply for either a role as a student intern or a student volunteer. Applications are open through May 15 and available on line at ReWildLongIsland.org/summerprogram.

Student volunteers are required to work a minimum of 30 hours (including training), and student interns are required a minimum of 60 hours (including training) and will receive a stipend of $300 at the conclusion of the program. All participants earn community service hours.

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Suffolk County Transit, which underwent a major redesign six months ago, is getting mixed reviews from bus riders, with some praising the changes and other lamenting the loss of more than a dozen routes. Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine in a recent letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul requesting increased transit aid, said the county's funding constraints are limiting its ability to “effectively service residents.” Romaine noted that despite having a greater population and covering a larger geographical area, Suffolk County receives far less state funding for its bus system than Nassau or Westchester counties. However, Alfonso A. Castillo reports on Newsday.com that transit systems in those counties carry about six times as many riders as Suffolk's does, according to federal data.

Romaine called Suffolk's relatively low ridership, compared to other counties in the region, “a self-fulfilling prophecy.” If Suffolk had the means to adequately expand and promote bus service, ridership would grow, Romaine said.

With increased state aid, Romaine said the county would put back some of the eliminated routes and improve connectivity to the LIRR. In his letter to Governor Hochul, Romaine said the county would also add 50 “micro-transit vans” to its fleet, enhance accessibility, build bus shelters, improve security and upgrade to electric buses.

Charlton D'souza, president of Passengers United, a nonprofit rider advocacy group, said there's another reason the state should step up its funding of Suffolk County Transit — the forthcoming congestion pricing plan.

If state officials, who passed congestion pricing into law, want commuters to choose transit over driving into Manhattan, they need to improve access to public transportation in the suburbs, D'souza said.

“You're going to have a lot of residents who use the LIRR, but they're going to want bus service that connects [to the railroad], more morning service, more evening service,” D'souza said. “So I think the state budget should have included more funding for Suffolk County Transit. I think that that's a necessity.”

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The public is invited to the 47th Annual Meeting of the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island and North Fork, scheduled for this coming Sunday, May 19, at the East Hampton Public Library, 159 Main Street in East Hampton.

After mingling and refreshments at 1 p.m., the business portion of the Annual Meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m., to include adoption of the League budget for 2024-25, election of officers and directors, adoption of local program, and the presentation of two annual awards—the League’s Betty Desch Student Leadership Award of a $2,000 scholarship to a high school graduating senior, and the Carrie Chapman Catt Award to a League member for longtime distinguished service.

Guest speaker after the business meeting is Steve Long, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, who will give a PowerPoint talk titled “A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the East Hampton Historical Society,” featuring the society’s many historic buildings and the launching of its participation in a new arts and culture app Bloomberg Connects, now used by over 350 museums worldwide.

After his talk, Mr. Long has graciously invited all on a complimentary tour at approximately 3:30 p.m. of the newly-opened Dominy Shops Museum—the home and workshop, on the original site, of the East Hampton family that is famous for its master craftsmanship of 18th and 19th century furniture and clocks and the nearby Hook Windmill. The importance of the Dominy family to American craft is made evident by the fact that the workshop was even recreated at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.

The Dominy Shops is located at 73 North Main Street (across from the IGA), with parking behind the museum.

Reservations for the Annual Meeting and tour are being taken on the League phone at 631-324-4637.

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The Greenport Farmers Market will be held this year for the first time in Greenport Village’s Mitchell Park at 115 Front Street on Friday afternoons. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the market, which will include about 20 vendors providing a wide variety of local products ranging from fruits and vegetables to wines, spirits and cider, fish, meat, cheese, baked goods and other local products, will open for the season this coming Friday May 17 and is scheduled every Friday, from 3 to 6:30 p.m., through Oct. 11. The Greenport Village Board approved the market’s public assembly permit at its April 25 meeting, after working through a range of concerns including keeping the village’s open container law enforced during the market, and sharing the park with marina users and the Greenport Community Band, which performs in the park on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

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Many Long Islanders earn salaries that could be sustainable in some other parts of the country but have difficulty putting food on the table in a region with a high cost of living. Some earn too much to be eligible for food assistance through the SNAP program but still face food insecurity. In Suffolk County, 40% of the approximately 80,000 food-insecure residents earn above the gross income SNAP threshold in New York, according to Feeding America, a food bank network that operates across the country. Formerly known as food stamps, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…SNAP…has been instrumental in staving off hunger for millions. But experts say it is also ripe for changes to make it easier to apply for the benefit and more applicable to people who live in regions with high costs of living.

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith and Maureen Mullarkey report on Newsday.com that Together, this equation often leaves struggling residents in a dilemma. They either depend on steady visits to a food bank, and eat cheaper, less healthy foods — or go without.

The coronavirus pandemic and its ensuing job losses helped to open a window on the prevalence of food insecurity nationally and on Long Island. Many who could previously afford to put food on the table found themselves at food pantries and applying for SNAP benefits.

To live on Long Island, a family of four should have an income of roughly $100,000 for “basic necessities,” according to a 2022 report from the Suffolk County Legislature’s Welfare to Work Commission.

Conversely, SNAP benefits are guided by thresholds that include an annual gross income limit of $45,000 in New York for a family of four, according to the state’s website.

For a household with an elderly or disabled person with dependent care expenses, the annual income limit for a family of four is $60,000.