By Mike Russo
by the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association (NSSBA), Legislator Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale) fired back at a Dec. 4 press conference, accusing the NSSBA of being more concerned about personal liability than for the well-being of students.
The Natalie Ciappa Law - named after the young Massapequa teen who died of a heroin overdose in April - was first proposed by Mejias at a Nov. 17 press conference, where it was publicly endorsed by the Ciappa family, Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin) and Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. If approved by the full Legislature on Dec. 15, the law would require that county law enforcement agencies directly notify school districts when an arrest for sale of heroin is made involving a student from that school district or when anyone is arrested in the vicinity of it. Private school principals would also be notified. While names would not be released to the school districts, advocates of the bill say it's more important that the schools are notified of the growing heroin epidemic (heroin related arrests in Nassau County have increased 50 percent since 2002, according to the county district attorney's office) among high school students so they can be better informed and better equipped to help fight it.
Mejias said that the NSSBA's attitude is very similar to one portrayed by Massapequa's acting school superintendent, Charles Sulc, when he denied that the Massapequa school district had a "heroin problem," when in fact they were aware of several heroin-related cases involving Massapequa students, according to Mejias. He said that it's the NSSBA's job to protect students, not to protect themselves.
"The [NSSBA] should be ashamed of themselves," said Mejias. "The excuse that [the law] would impose liability is nonsense. This knowledge is power for them."
Natalie Ciappa's parents, Doreen and Victor, who have worked closely with Mejias on the proposed legislation, were present at the Dec. 4 press conference and were equally angered at the NSSBA. Doreen Ciappa told a heart-wrenching story about Natalie, remembering how Natalie would "nod off" in class and at home but lied about what was wrong, claiming to be tired and depressed. Ciappa's parents even sent Natalie to see a therapist at one point. If the school district had notified them about the heroin-related arrests, Ciappa's parents said, they might have taken that into consideration.
"If the [school] district had let us know, we might have done something different," said Doreen Ciappa. "I'm not saying my daughter would be alive right now, but at least I would have had that chance. [The school district] was protecting themselves. They were not protecting our kids."
Victor Ciappa, who was visibly distraught throughout the press conference, said he's received notices from the school on many other non-life-threatening issues, but never heard anything about heroin.
"We've been contacted about head lice, which I don't think anyone has ever died from," said Victor Ciappa, "we've been informed about strep throat, sexual predators...I wish I would have gotten the letter about a heroin arrest in our town."
According to Jay L.T. Breakstone, NSBBA vice president for Nassau, the bill in its original language had significant problems, including what would amount to county mandates on the schools as well as an insufficient amount of people notified about heroin-related arrests in their towns. He said that notifying only school boards doesn't solve the problem, as village and hamlet boundaries don't always coincide with school district boundaries. Breakstone said that the NSSBA had proposed an amendment to the Natalie Ciappa Bill to expand the number of organizations that would be notified by law enforcement to include churches, synagogues and civic groups - so that more people could be better informed to fight the problem.
"You might have someone get arrested across the street from a school, and that district wouldn't be notified," Breakstone metaphorically stated. "If you believe in the iconic phrase, 'it takes a village to raise a child,' then the people in that village have the responsibility to protect that child," said Breakstone. "The more eyes you have, the better off you are. God only gave us each two eyes, but as a community, we have many more eyes than that."
Breakstone said that his comments about the NSSBA's liability concerns to the county Legislature at the bill's Dec. 1 public hearing were taken out of context. He offered an example, saying that if a good Samaritan helps a neighbor change a tire but does a poor job and ultimately causes the neighbor to get into an accident, the good Samaritan would be liable.
"There's a principle of law that says if you aren't responsible for doing something and then you go ahead and do it poorly...when you undertook a responsibility that you didn't have and you did it negligently, now you are responsible," said Breakstone. "That's the principle we were talking about. The fact is that we don't want to assume liability any more than the county Legislature does. What you need is an effective bill. You want to get something that's real and not cosmetic."
Mejias stated that he is expanding his legislation to notify other community groups, but that he remains undeterred in continuing to fight for the bill.
"We are going to expand this bill to notify churches, synagogues, and civic groups," said Mejias. "But we are not going to dilute this bill, and we're not going to move away from the spirit of this bill. Kids are dying. Parents have a right to know if kids are selling heroin in the schools."
Comments about this story? MRusso@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
