Long Beach closes beaches following word of several school cut days

The City of Long Beach announced Friday that beaches will be closed all day after the police department received word of numerous planned school cut days.

The city was notified on social media that students from multiple school districts had planned to come to Long Beach for the day. The Long Beach Police Department did stop groups from Flushing High School, New Hyde Park High School, and a high school in Manhattan on the boardwalk from trying to enter the beaches.

"We did preemptively shut the beach today for safety," Acting Police Commissioner Richard DePalma said at a news conference Friday, "for the safety of everybody, not only for the students, but for the residents and for all the first responders."

Long Beach has had unauthorized parties take place on the beaches in the past, some leading to changes being made, including a shooting last year.

"If you disrupt our peace, if you come to our city to cause chaos, and if you attempt to come to our city to cause chaos, you will face the consequences and the cost of those actions," City Council President Brendan Finn said. "We will do everything in our power to prevent that. This is about safety, this is about respect for the law."

Temporary barriers have been put up at each beach entrance across the boardwalk. Police presence will also be scattered across the boardwalk, monitoring. 

The city is receiving assistance from other nearby departments, with MTA police by the train station and Nassau County and New York State police helping as well.

"We want people to come and enjoy our beach," Finn said. "We have a great beach. We have great places to eat and drink, and enjoy yourself. But senior cut day is not the day to come to Long Beach."

The beaches will reopen Saturday at 5 a.m.