Efforts made to honor a volunteer firefighter

Woodmere resident Avi Fertig has created an online petition calling for the Lawrence School District to rename Lawrence Middle School in memory of Inwood resident and volunteer firefighter Joseph Sanford Jr., who died on Dec. 23 of injuries he suffered four days earlier, when he responded to a house fire on Central Avenue in Woodmere and fell from the first floor to the basement.
Fertig said he had recently read a study that concluded that young people view volunteerism and civil service as less of a responsibility than previous generations. He said he hoped that if the school were renamed for Sanford, students would be imbued with a sense of civic-mindedness.
“I had come up with this idea not long after I heard that Joseph died, and resolved to go forward with it in the strongest possible way after I met Jacqueline, Joe Sanford’s widow, at the [wake] in Inwood,” said Fertig, a special assistant to the Town of Hempstead board. “You’re talking about a person who lived in Inwood and gave his life for the community. It was a completely selfless act, and the school is for everybody. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t be remembered in perpetuity by everybody.”
Fertig’s petition went online on Dec. 30, and had nearly 300 signatories as the Herald went to press.
Aware that the Lawrence district was considering renaming the middle school as part of a restructuring plan it will implement in September, Fertig said he emailed Superintendent Gary Schall about his idea on Dec. 27. The district’s Board of Education will discuss the idea at Monday’s meeting at the middle school at 8 p.m., Schall said.

A contest to rename the school has a submission deadline of Feb. 15. The administration will review any other possible choices, and then make recommendations to the board and seek the advice of the district’s attorney. Sanford’s family will also be involved in the decision. Schall said that since the district has never named a building after a person, it “must proceed carefully.” A library, an auditorium and school rooms have been named for people, he said.
Schall said that Sanford is deserving of the honor. “Joseph Sanford was truly a hero,” he said. “He represents the heroism of all first responders. Naming the school after a fireman is a way to honor all of our first responders.”
Sanford, the first African-American 1st deputy chief of the Inwood department, worked his way up the ranks in his 17 years as a firefighter after serving the required five-year probation period. He eventually became a lieutenant, captain and 1st deputy chief. He was posthumously promoted to chief.
A Nassau County Department of Public Works employee, Sanford was also known for playing Santa Claus and for his love of football.
The district’s restructuring plan for the middle school calls for creating a lower school for grades three, four and five and an upper school for grades six, seven and eight. The district also plans to retain ownership of the Number Five School while closing it and leasing it to an organization that caters to special-needs children. The Number Two School will be used by first- and second-graders, while the Number Four School will keep pre-K and kindergarten students. The realignment is based on the Princeton Plan, which organizes school districts by grade levels rather than where students live in the community.
One of the petition signatories, Brett De Sibio, wrote in his online comments that Sanford should be admired for what he did for the community, and the school should be renamed for a man who thought of others before he thought of himself. “I write this with a heavy heart and hope his name can be kept alive, so kids have a chance to become the best person they could be,” De Sibio wrote. “There should be no consideration to the name change of the school; it should be done. Kids should walk into a building of honor and mobility.”
To access the petition, go to www.ipetitions.com/petition/re-name-lawrence-middle-school-in-honor-of-fallen/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=button.

Have an opinion about renaming the middle school? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.