Open gate policy at Lynbrook schools worries parents

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Kristen Larke was feeling ill a few weeks ago and decided to stay home from her job as a teacher in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich School District. She said she decided to drop off her daughter at Marion Street Elementary School, where she noticed that the gates are left unlocked when her daughter plays outside.

This worried Larke, who grew up in Lynbrook and attended Marion Street when she was younger. She said she fears that anyone would be able to walk into the school at any time, and she expressed these concerns at the Lynbrook Board of Education meeting on Feb. 8.

“While I’m working and making sure other students are safe, I’m concerned for 15 minutes that my daughter has a chance of being taken or someone could come in and do harm to all the students at Marion Street,” she told members of the board. Soon after, another woman said that she and her husband have felt these same concerns for many years.

In response, school board President William Belmont explained that the gates are opened at Marion Street because people in the community like to use the track there, and although there is no track at West End Elementary School, community members use the fields there as well. The gates are also left opened at South Middle School.

“South and West have remained open over the years because the community has requested that,” Belmont said. “And so our community and residents are the ones that have been using that.”

Larke wasn’t pleased with the response, and said that she has friends in the community that will use the track and the fields at the elementary schools. “I just don’t understand how we’re letting three gates be open for five people to go jogging,” she said. “They could go before or after school, they could get a gym membership. The safety of our students should be put before the exercise regiment of a few community members during the school day.”

The open gate policy has been in place at Lynbrook schools since 1997. The policy reads: “The Board will permit the use of the school property, when not employed for school use, for any of the purposes permitted by law, to the extent of budgetary appropriation for such purposes. Such use may take place during school hours only if, in the opinion of the Board of Education, the use will not be disruptive of normal school operations.”

Melissa Burak, superintendent of Lynbrook Public Schools, said that the board would further discuss these concerns. Larke, meanwhile, said she would continue to worry about the safety of her daughter.

“I just feel that it’s 2017 and you feel that something’s not going to happen in the nice town of Lynbrook,” Larke said, “but when it does or can happen, then what are we going to do or say to the people that came up at the board meeting that were concerned about the gates being open?”